(Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library) Maximus The Confessor, Nicholas Constas (Ed.) - On The Difficulties in The Church Fathers - The Ambigua. II-Harvard Univer PDF

T he A m b i g u a
Maximos the Confessor
-Du m b a r t o n o a k s
M e d i e v a l oî_b r a r y
Jan M. Ziolkowski, General Editor
D I F F I C U L T I E S
C H U R C H
I M O S
T H E
T H E
F A T H E R S
VOLUME
I N
II
C O N F E S S O R
DO ML 29
On Difficulties in
the Church Fathers
T
he A m bigua
VOLUME
aximos
the
II
onfessor
Edited and Translated by

NICHOLAS
CONSTAS
^Du m b a r t o n o a k s
M e d i e v a l ^ i_b r a r y
H a r v a r d
U n i v e r s i t y
C A M B R ID G E ,
P r e s s
M A SS A C H U S E T T S
LO N D O N ,
EN G LA N D
2 0 14
Copyright 2014 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College

A L L R IG H T S R E SE R V E D
Printed in the United States o f America
Library o f Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Maximus, Confessor, Saint, approximately 580-662.
{Works. Selections]
On difficulties in the church fathers: The ambigua / Maximos the
Confessor; edited and translated by Nicholas Constas.
pages cm.(DO M L; 28-29)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-674-72666-6 (vol. 1, doml 28 : alk. paper)
ISBN 978-0-674-73083-0 (vol. 2, doml 29: alk. paper)
1.Theology; DoctrinalByzantine Empire. 2. Theology, D octrinalHistoryEarly church, ca. 30-600.3. Pseudo-Dionysius, theAxeopagite.
4. Gregory; of Nazianzus, Saint. I. Constas, Nicholas. II. Maximus,
Confessor, Saint, approximately 580-662. Works. Selections. English.
2014. III. Maximus, Confessor, Saint, approximately 580-662. Ambigua
ad Iohannem. IV. Maximus, Confessor, Saint, approximately 580-662.
Ambigua ad Iohannem. English. V. Maximus, Confessor, Saint,
approximately 580-662. Philosophika kai theologika erotemata. V I.
Maximus, Confessor, Saint, approximately 580-662. Philosophika kai
theologika erotemata. English. V II. Title.
BR65.M412E5 2014
230'.14dc23
2013022234
Contents
A mbigua
to
J o h n , 23-71
Abbreviations 333
Note on the Text 337
Notes to the Text 343
Notes to the Translation 333
Bibliography
Index 383
373
A M B I G U A TO J O H N
Ambiguum 23
- j ,

.
2
,
'
, 6 Si

: ,
.

,
.
2
, ,
.
, ,
Ambiguum 23
F
rom Saint Gregorys First Oration On the Son:

For this reason the Monad from the beginning moved
toward a dyad and at the Trinity came to a halt.1
Everything which is moved according to nature is nec- 2

essarily moved in consequence of a cause, and everything
moved in consequence of a cause necessarily also exists in
consequence of a cause; and everything that exists and is
moved in consequence of a cause necessarily has as the be
ginning o f its being [1257D] the cause in consequence o f
which it exists and from which it was initially brought into
being; likewise, the end of its being moved is the same cause
in consequence o f which it is moved and toward which it
hastens. Now everything which exists and is moved in con
sequence o f a cause is necessarily also created, and if the end
o f whatever is moved is the cause in consequence o f w'hich it
is in motion, this cause is necessarily the same cause in con
sequence o f which it wTas created and exists. From this it fol
lows that the cause o f whatever exists and is moved, in any
way at all according to nature, is one single cause encom
passing both the beginning and the end, to which every
thing that exists and is moved owes its existence and mo
tion.2 For it is an actively efficacious power, [1260A} and in a
divinely fitting manner it both creates (insofar as it is the
A M B IG U A TO J O H N
, ,
, ' . , 3 ,
' ,
, .
.
,
, ,
.
3
, ,
;

, 4
, ,
,
,
- ,
,
,
,
,
,
,
AM BIGUUM
23
beginning) the things that exist and sends them forth, and
(insofar as it is the end) providentially draws the things tkat
are in motion back to the limit that it has established for
them. Now if every being which is moved (which also means
that it has been created)3 exists and is in motion and has
been created in consequence o f a cause, then whatever does
not exist in consequence o f a cause is obviously neither cre
ated nor moved. For that which does not have a cause ofbeing is not moved at all. If, then, the uncaused is necessarily
also unmoved, it follows that the Divine is unmoved, insofar
as it does not owe its being to a cause, being itself the cause
of all beings.
How, then, someone perhaps might ask, does this marvelous teacher, in the passage cited above, introduce a Di
vinity in motion? To this we respond that the teacher knew
far better than anyone else that the Divine is unmoved, but
just as the scientific principle constitutive of every art or
skill, while remaining completely unmoved in itselfif I
may avail myself of an exampleis said to be moved as it
receives form [1260B] with respect to each type of art or
skill that is subject to it, it is rather the case that it moves
the artifact by its own force, and not that it itself is mani
festly subject to motion. Or, one might say that because
light stirs the power of sight to see, it too must be subject to
motion, yet properly speaking it is not moved but rather
moves all sight and vision. In the same way, the Divine by
essence and nature is completely unmoved, insofar as it is
boundless, unconditioned, and infinite, but not unlike a sci
entific principle that exists within the substances of beings,
it is said to be moved, since it providentially moves each and
every being (in accordance with the principle by which each
AM BIGUA TO JO H N

. 5

,
, ;, , . ,
,

.

,
.
,
.
4

. ,
,
, , ,

, ,
,

,
,
AM BIGU U M
23
one is naturally moved); and as the cause o f beings, it may

receivewithout suffering any change all the attributes of
the beings o f which it is the cause.4 This indeed was what
the theologian and great Areopagite, Saint Dionysios, was
inquiring into when he asked: What do the theologians
mean when at one time they call the Divine [1260C} Desire
and Love, and at another, Desired and Beloved?, and he
answers by saying, For by the one He is moved, but by the
other He moves.5To put it more clearly, insofar as the Di
vine is desire and love, it is moved, but as desired and
beloved it moves to itself all things capable of desire and
love. And to be even clearer: the Divine is moved to the ex
tent that it creates an inner condition o f desire and love
among beings capable o f receiving them, and it moves inso
far as it naturally attracts the yearning o f those who are be
ing moved to it. And again, it moves and is moved, since it
thirsts to be thirsted for,6desires to be desired, and loves
to be loved.
It was in this manner that the godly-minded Gregory
likewise said, the Monad from the beginning moved to
ward a dyad and at the Trinity came to a halt. For the De
ity is moved in the {1260D} intellect that is receptive of it,
whether angelic or human, insofar as, through and in the
Deity, the intellect searches for insights that pertain to it. To
state this more clearly, in the Deitys initial approach, it in
divisibly teaches the intellect the principle o f unity lest divi
sion be attributed to the first cause, spurring the intellect to
receive the divine and ineffable fecundity whispering qui
etly and mysteriously to the intellect that it should never
consider this Good to be infertile o f the Word and Wisdom7
or the Power that sanctifies, which are consubstantial and
, ,
.
.

. 8

, ,
' ,
,
,
.
Ambiguum 24
/ ,
, , ,
, ,
, .
,
, ,
AM BIGU U M 24
exist hypostatically, lest the Divine be thought to be com

pounded of these as if from accidents, and not believed to
be eternally existing as these. The Deity is therefore said
to be moved insofar as it is the cause o f the minds search to
understand the Deitys mode o f subsistence, for without be
ing so illumined, [1261A} apprehending the Deity must be
reckoned among those things that are impossible. The De
ity is further said to move according to its more progres
sive manifestation and more perfect teaching in Holy Scrip
ture, beginning with faith in God the Father, proceeding to
a common confession of faith in the Father and the Son,
to the reception o f the Holy Spirit together with the Father
and the Son, so that those who have been so taught are led
to worship together the perfect Trinity in perfect unity, that
is, one essence, divinity, power, and energy in three hyposta
ses.8{1261BI
Ambiguum 24
F rom Saint Gregorys same First Oration On the Son:
Now, unless we are intoxicated, we make a distinction,
I think, between willing and a will, between be
getting and a birth, and speaking and speech.
The former refer to a subject in motion, the latter des
ignate the motion itself. What is willed does not be
long to a willit is not a necessary concomitant of it.
Nor does what is born belong to a begetting, nor what
A M BIG U A TO JO H N
,
.
, .

, , '
[see John 1:18, 3],
,
.
\|/ ,
,
,

.

, , , .
,

, .
,1 , .
.

A M BIGU U M
24
is heard to an act of speech. They belong instead to

the subject who wills, who begets, who speaks. What
belongs to God, however, transcends all these cases,
since for Him begetting may well just be the will to
beget.1
It was in opposition to the Arianswho were availing
themselves of every opportunity to blaspheme the onlybegotten Son, saying that He was not the Son o f the Father,
but of the Fathers willthat [1261C] the wise teacher ad
dressed these words, thereby demonstrating that all their
machinations against the truth were feeble and easily re
futed. For if we say that the souls powers, which one might
well call essential powers able to complete its substance,2
are able to operate in the substance in which they exist, we
do not say that they are capable of actively moving to pro
duce anything without the consent of a willing subject. If,
however, we grant hypothetically that, on the basis of their
natural movement, these powers will to act or operate on
their own, without, if I may put it like this, the impulse of
him whose powers they are, then there is absolutely nothing
to prevent them from operating effectively on their owm im
pulse. Howrever, actual deeds do not by any means follow
upon power when this latter does not have the impulse of
him whose powrer it is, proposing to it the concrete, [1261D]
actual end, because the power in and o f itself is not selfsubsistent. Thus it was in vain that the Arians rallied round
the will as such, for it can effectively accomplish nothing
apart from the walling subject who possesses and exercises
it. And this is what the teacher is saying. For it is obvious
that what is willed does not follow upon the will, nor do any
11
A M B IG U A TO JO H N
,
.
3
, ,

,
, ,
, ,
.
,
,
, ,
, ,
.
, ,
, , ,
,

,
, .
, ,
, , .

.
12
AM BIGUUM
24
of the other things he mentioned follow the others, without

the consent of the subject to whom they belong.
If, then, you gentlemen3 wish to calculate divine realities 3
based on human precedents, then you must acceptconsis
tent with your own presuppositionsthat things which co
exist according to the relation o f intermediate reciprocity
are necessarily simultaneous, by which I mean the subject
who wills and that which is willed, or the subject who begets
and that which is begotten, which coexist in reciprocal rela
tion [1264A] to willing and begetting.4 For just as there is no
vision apart from a seeing subject and an object of sight,
or thought apart from a thinking mind and an object of
thought, so too, apart from him who begets and that which
is begotten there is no begetting, just as there is no willing
apart from one who wills and that which he wills, since, as I
have already pointed out, what is willed does not proceed
from the will without the intervention of the one who wills.
And if these are among things that are simultaneous accord
ing to their relation, for the relation between them is per
manent, then, on your own terms, the Son who is begotten
is simultaneous with the Father who begets, and who is eter
nally a Father, by virtue of His begetting, without admitting
in any way the slightest interposition o f any temporal dis
tance between Him and the Father who begets Him, so that
the Son is not a Son of the will, but of the begetting Father.
Let even these things, the teacher says, which are derived 4
from human {1264B} precedents, be mentioned, but far be
yond them all are the things of God, for with Him, perhaps,
begetting is the same as willing to beget. By adding the ad
verb perhaps, he rendered the statement doubtful, since
the birth of the Son from the Father is beyond willing. Be-
13
A M BIGU A TO JO H N
,
, ,
, .

, ,
.
Ambiguum 25
-L_/ k ,

, ,
,
;
2

, ,
, ,

.

AM BIGU U M
2J
tween the Father and the Son there is no mediation o f will,

for not even the will o f the Father can be thought o f in any
way whatsoever before the Son, because the Father did not
exist before the Son, just as the intellect is not separate from
the word that comes forth from it, nor the light separate
from its radiance.5 Because insofar as the Father and the
Son, who is begotten timelessly from Him, have their being
simultaneously, they also have one will, which is simple and
indivisible, just as they have one substance and one nature.
[1264c]
Ambiguum 25
F r o m Saint Gregorys same First Oration On the Son:
For what hinders me, if I assume the same minor
premise, namely, the Father is greater by nature, and
then add that by nature He is not absolutely greater,
nor Father, and then conclude that the greater is not
absolutely greater, or that being the Father does
not absolutely entail being the Father?1
Because the teacher wisely stated that the Father, as 2
cause, is greater than the Sonsince the Son is from the Fa
ther, but not the Father from the Sonthe Arians took the
premise as pertaining to causality on the level of nature, and
maliciously concluded the superiority o f that nature. In his
initial response to this, the teacher forcefully refutes what
15

.
, ' 1
, .
, , ,
.
, ,

, ,
,
, , ,
,
.
3

.
- , ,
, ,

;
, ,
, , .
AM BIGUUM
25
they had so illogically concluded, saying, I do not know

whether they confuse themselves more by their own falla
cies, or those to whom they address them. For it is not the
case that all the predicates affirmed of a particular thing can
be affirmed unconditionally [1264D} of its underlying na
ture; but to the contrary, it is clear that they are affirmed
o f some particular thing, in some particular respect.2 He
means that not everything predicated of the cause as cause
must necessarily be predicated o f its nature. For it is not ra
tional to maintain, for example, that what is predicated o f a
wise man (because he is wise), or o f a king (because of his
kingship), must also be predicated of their underlying na
ture, that is, to the fact that they are human beings, and
thereby unlawfully adopt into the definition of the essence
o f their underlying natures whatever is said about wisdom
as such, or o f kingship as such, which do not in any way
share in the principle o f their essence, for they neither com
prise its constitutive differences [1265A} nor contribute to
the completion o f its definition.
After this, he crafts an even more cogent syllogism from 3
their premise, and thereby makes them refute themselves
by their own argument. Here is the syllogism: For what hin
ders me, if I assume the same minor premise, namely, that
the Father is greater by nature, and then add that by nature
He is not absolutely greater, nor Father, and then conclude
that the greater is not absolutely greater, or that being the
Father does not absolutely entail being the Father? So that
this might be made clearer to us, I propose to transpose the
argument, if you concur, into what is called a figure,3 be
ginning with the opposing arguments, and closing with the
teaching of our father Gregory
17
,
,
,
.

,
,
.
,
.
,
,
.
Ambiguum 26
JLZ/K

,
-
8
AM BIGU U M 20
The premise o f the Arians, that is, the Eunomians:

If by nature the Father is the cause o f the Son, and if
the Father is greater than the Son, then the Father is
greater than the Son by nature. {1265B}
The solution of our holy father Gregory, which refutes the
above by a reductio ad absurdum:
If, in your view, the Father is by nature greater than
the Son, and if by nature He is not absolutely greater
or Father, then the greater is not absolutely greater,
nor the Father absolutely Father.
In this way, those who reject the truth were refuted by
their own arguments, being ensnared in their own machina
tions, cast out from true piety, left with nothing but their
own empty pretensions. For in these arguments the conclu
sions are probative o f the premises, while the premises de
fine the conclusions, and it is in the conclusions that they
who thought themselves wisebecame entangled because
of their exceeding ignorance. {1265CJ
Ambiguum 26
F rom Saint Gregorys same oration On the Son:
Suppose, then, if you like, that Father is the name of
an activity; you will not ensnare us this way either. He
19
AM B I G C A TO J O H N
,
.
'
[Ps 51(52)12] ;,
, ,

( ,
) ,
, ,

,
, ,
, 2 , ,
. ; .
.
20
AM BIGUUM
26
will actively have produced that very consubstantiality (i.e., of the Son), even if the notion of activity em
ployed here is decidedly absurd.1
Those who had their tongues sharpened like razors in order 2
to lacerate the truth, were saying, under the guise of a ques
tion: Is Father the name o f an essence or an activity?
Their aim was that if we, in response, were to say that Fa
ther is the name of an essence, they could conclude from
this that the Son is of a different essence from the Father,
since two names, properly different, are not predicated of
the same essence.2 (For, if Father is the name of an es
sence, then the same essence could never receive the name
of Son.) If, on the other hand, we say that it is the name of
an activity, they would quite rightly point out that we con
fess the Son to be a creation of the Father, since He would
be a product o f the Fathers activity [1265D} For this reason,
the teacher, having drawn out the contrast between the
proper names, immediately affirmed that the name o f Fa
ther is neither the name of an essence nor an activity, but
rather of a relation, and o f the manner in which3 the Father
is related to the Son, or the Son to the Father, he spoke ac
commodatingly, adding: Let it be, then, if you like, the
name of an activity, but then adds: He will have actively
produced that very consubstantiality. Now a person of
an inordinately inquisitive nature, o f the type that cannot
abide not knowing all the details about something that he
thinks concerns him, might very well ask: How does the
Father actively produce the consubstantiality (of the Son)?
This can be answered in the following manner.
21
AM BIGUA TO JO H N
,

,

. ,
, .
,
, ,

{ Cor 1:24]

.
,

.
. ,
, ,
,
,
,

.
22
AM BIGUUM
26
They say that among beings there exist two general kinds
of activities. {1268A} The first o f these enables beings natu
rally to bring forth from themselves other beings identical
in form and substance and absolutely identical to them.
With this in mind, the teacher generously condescended to
their prattle, in order to bridle, if only a little, their blas
phemous tongues, and said: Let it be, then, if you like
consistent with what we said was the purpose of the argu
mentthat Father is the name of an activity. From this
premise he concludes that the Father will actively have
produced that very consubstantiality (of the Son), as an ac
tivity essentially subsisting and living, precisely as the godlyminded teachers o f the truth have taught, saying that the
only-begotten Word of God and Son o f the Father is the
Living Word and Power and self-subsisting Wisdom. The sec
ond kind o f activity is said to produce things that are ex
ternal to the essence, as when a person actively engages
something extrinsic and substantially different, and from it
produces something foreign {1268B] to his own substance,
having constructed it from some other source of already ex
isting matter. They say that this kind o f activity is a scien
tific characteristic o f the arts. This is why the godly-minded
teacher says that the notion o f activity employed here is
decidedly absurd, that is, used in a manner that is not ac
ceptable, especially when it is applied to the Father and the
Son, to whom not even the first kind can be either received
or countenanced by a religiously dutiful intellect, since it is
far beneath the ineffable and inconceivable existence o f the
only-begotten Son, which is from the Father, with the Fa
ther, and in the Father. [1268C}
23
AM BIG U A TO JO H N
Ambiguum 27
_ (
JL-/K ' ,
,
. ;
, [see John
20:17]. ,
, .
,
.
2
,
, .
,
,
10 ,

,
,
. ,
24
AM BIGU U M
27
Ambiguum 27
F r o m Saint Gregorys Second Oration On the Son:
On the other hand, God would not be called God of
the Word (for how could He be the God o f one who,
properly speaking, is God?), but God o f the one who
was visible, in the same way as God is Father, not of
the one who was visible, but o f the Word, because He
(i.e., Christ, the Incarnate Word) was twofold, with
the result that the former are properly attributed to
both, but the latter not properly so, which is the op
posite o f what happens in our case, since, properly
speaking, God is our God but not our Father.1
The former are properly attributed to both, the for- 2
mer indicating the terms Father and God, both o f
which may properly be affirmed with respect to Christ, by
virtue o f the one hypostasis. Because, properly speaking,
the Father o f Christ is God, since Christ is the Son and
Word o f God, and one o f the Holy Trinity, even after the In
carnation. [1268D] And, again, properly speaking, the Fa
ther is the God of the same Christ, since Christ is truly man
by virtue o f the flesh, and by being one among men. This is
because, properly speaking, the parts may be predicated of
the whole that they comprise, since, properly speaking, the
whole admits of all the natural characteristics belonging
to the parts, from which it has its subsistence. The phrase
but the latter not properly so, must likewise be taken as
25
,
,
.

.
3
,
.
, , ,
, , .
,
. , ,
, ,
,
,
,
, ,
,
, . '
,
, ,
. ,
,
.
20
AM BIGU U M
27
pertaining to both, that is, God and the Father, since,

properly speaking, neither of these can be affirmed with re
spect to Christ, by virtue of the natural difference of the na
tures, from which and in which He exists. This is because in
the case o f a whole that is also a compound, the attributes o f
one or another of its parts can, properly speaking, never be
predicated o f the whole.
But this is the opposite o f what happens in our case, 3
that is, the reverse o f what happens in our case, because
when I [1269A] contemplate the difference of the natures,
and mentally conceptualize their distinction, I am not able
to affirm that the former are properly attributed to both,
that is, Father or God. For, properly speaking, the Fa
ther is neither the God of the Word nor the Father of the
flesh. But the opposite happens, that is, a reversal, or an
inversion, with respect to what may properly be said and
what may not properly be said, by virtue o f both the unity
o f the one hypostasis and of the difference of the na
tures (distinguished through the minds conceptualization
o f them), because to the one hypostasis we may, properly
speaking, affirm G od and Father, since Christ is one, and
thus admits of G od in the manner that has been explained,
whereas when the situation is reversed, the essential differ
ence of the natures, properly speaking, will not admit o f
this, as happens in our case. In other words, God, properly
speaking, is our God, [1269B] just as He is the God of th e
flesh of the Word, but He is not, properly speaking, our F a
ther, just as, properly speaking, He is not the Father of th e
flesh of the Word. By a reciprocal exchange, we need to say
that the things o f the whole belong to the parts, and th e
parts to the whole, and then one easily acquires a clear grasp
of the issue at hand.
27
,
, ,
, , ,

, ,
, .
,
, , .
, , . ,
,
, "
,
, , , ,
,

.12 , ,

, ,

.
28
A M B I G U U M 27
To make this clearer, when Christ is contemplated as a.

hypostasis, then we must affirm what, properly speaking,
are attributed to both, that is, God and Father. W h e n ,
however, the two natures of Christ are contemplated in lig h t
o f their unconfused existence, in which and from which H e
is, then we must affirm the reverse, that is, the not p ro p
erly speaking, which happens in our case. And the te a c h e r
makes this clear when he adds: This is what leads the h e re
tics astray: the coupling of the attributes, {1269C} since t h e
attributes overlap because of the intermingling. The m ark:
o f this is that, when the two natures are separated by t h e
mind in thought, their respective attributes2 are d ivid ed
with them.3 In other words, so long as you contemplate
Christ as a single hypostasis, the coupling o f the attributes
in their mutual interchange is indivisible; but when, on t h e
other hand, you separate in your thoughts the two natures
that complete the one hypostasis in Christ, you simultane
ously divide the attributes together with the natures. O r ,
again, because Christ by nature is twofold, both God a n d
Father may be affirmed in His case: properly speaking
when the attributes are appropriately predicated o f the n a
tures, and not properly so when the name o f eacho f w'hich
He consists, and in which He existsis attributed to t h e
other by virtue of the exchange that takes place owing t o
the one hypostasis. But not knowing how to make such a
distinction, or rather {1269D} not willing to endure such a
distinction, heretics then and now4 do not cease to b la s
pheme the only-begotten Word o f God, some reducing H im
to the level of a creature on account o f His human a ttri
butes, and others confusing the dispensation5 by denying
the natures of which He is composed.
29

,
, ,
, , ,
,
, .
,
,
.
, ,
. '
, .

.
Ambiguum 28
,
( ) (John
5:26], (John 5:22, 27},
[see Ps 2:8], (John 17:2],
(Ape 5:12], [see John 17:6},
30
AM BIGU U M
28
I
once posed the problem presented by this passage to a
man who was exceedingly wise in matters pertaining to di
vine things, and he said that both the properly speaking
and the not properly so belong to the same predicate of
relation, whether the term is Father or God or both, since
the relation in question is predicated of the one Christ, who
consists o f the two opposites, that is, o f what is predicated
properly speaking and what is not properly so. If, when
one distinguishes the two natures in thought, the Father o f
Christ is called God, this can be said to be properly spo
ken with respect to the nature o f the creature, but not
properly so with respect to the divine Word. Similarly, but
from the opposite point of view, God is, properly speaking,
the Father o f the Word, but not, properly speaking, of the
[1272A] creature, consistent with what holds true in our case.
For us, He is, properly speaking, God, but not, properly
speaking, Father. Having accepted the interpretation of this
wise man as being correct, it seemed good to append it here.6
Ambiguum 28
F rom Saint Gregorys same Second Oration On the Son:
He (that is, Christ) receives life, judgment, the inheritance
o f the Gentiles, authority over all flesh, glory, disciples, or
whatever else is mentioned. [1272B} (To which the
31
( ),
( ),
, .
,
, .
2
,
, ,
,
,
,
,
,
, ,
, - ,
, , ,
, .
- , ,
.

.
,
,
.
32
a m b i g u u m
28
teacher adds) And these things belong to His human

ity (after which he says), yet it would not be absurd to
grant them to God. For you will not be granting to
Him acquired properties, but properties that have ex
isted together with Him from the beginning, not by
grace, but by reason o f His nature.1
Many were the times I pondered the difficulty' posed b y
this passage, and about how and why, as the teacher says,
God is named according to His nature based on what H e
has received. Being unable to provide myself with a satis
factory solution, I judged it, in the end, a good thing to p u t
the matter before a wise elder, who with great intelligence
steered a course through the subject at hand.2 He said that
Let us say, hypothetically speaking, that we knew someone
who was able to explain clearly to others the natures o f b e
ings, and he said to them: Let us grant to God the attributes
of omnipotence, wisdom, goodness, and {1272C} justice, and
to creation let us grant servitude, obedience, circumscrip
tion, existence ex nihilo, and all that follows from these,
since according to common concepts3 the nature o f each
thing demands what is proper to it. Now when this fellow
said, Let us grant to God, he was not attributing to G o d
anything that God did not already possess, but the very
things that belong to His nature. And this is because let us
grant means to define and distinguish nature in terms o f
what constitutes its natural attributes and what does no t.
In the same way you may reverently understand the teacher
when he says to grant them to God, that is, with Gods n a
ture receiving the attributes that naturally belong to it, con
sistent with those who define and make distinctions among
things. [1272D]
33
AM BIGU A TO JO H N
Ambiguum 29
J J / K ,

.
2

,

,
, .
.
,
, .
, .
, ,
,
,
, .
34
AM BIGUUM
29
Ambiguum 29
JP ro m Saint Gregorys same Second Oration On the Son:
For we affirm that it is impossible for God to be evil or
not to be.1
I
also asked the aforementioned wise elder2 about this 2
passage, and he told me that the words not to be should
not be taken as conditioned by the previous statement, lest
it be concluded that God is evil. Because to affirm that it is
impossible for God to be evil or not to be evil, is to say that
He is evil, since evil is common to both negations, and
a double negation produces a positive. The impossible is
one negative, and when connected to the not to be evil,
results in the conclusion that God is evil. But this o f course
is not trueperish the thought! Instead, each part {1273A]
o f the passage has its own logical principle and sequence,
and in order for the phrase to be balancedjust as we af
firm that it is impossible for God to be evil we need to
add a comma (i.e., after the word evil), and so make the fi
nal clause the beginning o f a new idea, so that or not to be
means or not to exist.
35
Ambiguum 30
X -/K ,
. Si ,
, , ' , ,
, .
2

,
[Rom 8:6] ,
[Phlp 2:8},

,
,
,
,
, ,
. 1

,
' ,
36
AM BIGUUM 30
Ambiguum 30
F r o m Saint Gregorys same Second Oration On the Son:
There you have the Sons titles. Walk in a godly man
ner through all those that are sublime, and compas
sionately through all that are corporeal; or rather,
treat them all in a godly manner, so that you might be
come God by ascending from below, for the sake of
Him who descended for us from above.1 {1273B}
He who has illumined his intellect through the sublime
contemplation o f the conception o f each o f the divine
names, having elevated and transformed it in light of the
primal and spiritual principle of each, and having subjected
the mind o f the flesh to the spirit by the labors of virtue, be
coming obedient even unto death, is the one who truly walks
through the divine titles of the Son blamelessly in spirit
and flesh, undertaking his divine journey to God both in a
sublime manner (according to mystical contemplation
through the sublime names), and compassionately (ac
cording to practical philosophy through the corporeal
names), hastening to his repose on high, or rather he jour
neys through them all in a godly manner, since practice it
self is contemplative, and not without a share in the grace o f
reason.2 Yet the reason for which3 he chose voluntary
[1273c} estrangement to the flesh by the perfect circum
cision o f its natural movements clearly indicates that,
in order to become God by grace, he established himself
37
, ,
,
, ,
,
, .
3
" ,
,
, ,
,
.
Ambiguum 31
1 , ,

. .2
2
1
,

AM BIGU U M
31
beyond matter (as far as flesh was concerned) through as

cetic practice, and beyond form (as far as intellect was con
cerned) through contemplationfor it is from matter and
form that beings derive their existenceand to tell the
whole of it, he became completely immaterial and formless
through his state o f virtue and knowledge, for the sake of
God the Word, who for our sake took on matter and form,
becoming as we are and truly one from among us, though by
nature He is strictly immaterial and formless.4
Or, again, the phrase, or rather, treat them all in a godly
manner, means that, having established within himself the
virtue and knowledge that is within human grasp, he ac
quired dispassion from his {1273D} compassion for God and
neighbor, and he suffers so that others might benefit, and is
eager to lay down his life for them, for he is completely free
o f defilement.
Ambiguum 31
F
:om Saint Gregorys oration On the Nativity:

The laws of nature are abolished; the world above
must be filled. Christ commands this, let us not re
sist.1
If in truth the abolition o f the laws of nature caused the

world above to be filled, it is clear [1276A} that, had these
laws not been abolished, the world above would have
39
.
; ,
, ,
. ,
, ,

, ,
, ,

.
, ,
.2
,

, {see Rom 5:19}

{see Ps 48(49): 2>
2o],
, ,
, . ,
, , .
3

,

, ,
. .
40
A M BIGU U M
31
remained deficient and unfilled. And what are these laws of

nature that were abolished? Conception through seed, and,
I think, birth through corruption, neither o f which charac
terized in any way whatsoever the true enfleshment of God
and His perfect humanization. For this was a conception
pure of any seed, and a birth completely untouched by cor
ruption, which is why the mother of the one bom remained
a virgin even after giving birth, and indeed suffered no pain
while giving birthwhich is a paradox that goes far beyond
every law and principle of natureand God deemed it wor
thy to be born from her in the flesh, and through His birth
bound the bonds of His mothers virginity more tightly. And
this is really a wondrous event and [1276B] report, that a
child should be conceived and come forth without the seals
of his mothers body being opened. It was truly necessary,
yes, necessary, for the Creator o f nature, in restoring nature
through Himself, to begin by abolishing the first laws o f na
turefor it was by these that sin, finding an opportunity
through disobedience, condemned human beings to be marked
with the same characteristic as irrational animals, in being
generated one from anotherand the laws of the first and
truly divine creation were renewed, so that God with His
strength could restore, out o f His love for mankind, what
feeble man, in his negligence, had destroyed.
If, therefore, these laws of nature, which were established 3
because o f sin, have been abolished in Christ, and every ser
vile uprising of the passions has been completely routed by
the presence of the Word, then the [1276C} world above
must unquestionably be filled, as the teacher said. And let
4i

' ,
{Rom 5:14} ,
, ,
[see 1 Cor 15:45] ,
,
,
,
[see
Rom 5:14! 19; Hbr 2:10}.
3
.

,
,
.
4

, ,
,
. ,
,
[Lk 15:4]
[Lk 15:8},
5
42
AM BIGU U M
31
us not resist this. For if the old Adam, a mere man subject to
sin, was able through his disobedience to abolish the first
spiritual laws o f nature, and thereby fill the lower world with
those who were born in the flesh from him to corruption,
becoming their leader by their likeness to his transgressiona
fact which no one disputesthen to a much greater degree
'ill the new, sinless Adam, Christ our God, abolish the laws
of irrationality, which were introduced into nature because
of sin, for He is the Divine Reason, and will be able to fill the
world above rightfully with those who are born from Him
by the Spirit into incorruptibility, becoming their leader by
their likeness to His obedience. And let this not be doubted
by anyone who has even a trifling sense [1276D] of Gods
power, and who is not totally ignorant of its magnitude. In
this way, then, the world above is filled by those who are
spiritually born in Christ, and thus the law of flesh and of
earthly birth reaches its appropriate limit, being reformed
in light of the world above.
Another interpretation2 of Saint Gregorys words

Since it seems to me that, in addition to these things, the 4
saying of the teacher also possesses another meaning, I shall
do what is within my power to give expression to this too,
with God guiding my discourse to the Gospels. My Jesus,
who is God and the sole cause o f all {1277A] things, taught
secretly in parables that man is like a sheep who wandered
away from the divine flock of one hundred, and a silver
coin that fell from the divine decad, and a prodigal son who
stubbornly turned away from his father and dissolved the
43
[see L k 15:11-13}
, ,
, , , ,
,
,
,
,
, {see Gen 1:26]
,
, , ,

.
, ,
, , .
,
[Lk 15:4-5},
,

,
, Si
{Lk 15:8-10}, 5
{Lk 15:32}
, , ,

{Lk 15:22} ,
, {Lk 15:23, 3},
44
AM BIGUUM
31
spiritual unity of the divine fraternal dyad.3 I believe that

He called man a sheep insofar as he needs careful tending,
and because he is a follower, and is ranked in an order, and
provides his owner with three useful things: wool, lambs,
and milk, because man both is nourished and provides nour
ishment through the principle and mode o f natural contem
plation; and he is clothed and clothes by the mode o f ethical
philosophy; and he is enriched and enriches by giving birth
to others like him through the mystery o f true vision.4 He
called man a silver coin, since he is shining and royal, and
by virtue o f being an image he bears the characteristic mark
o f the divine {1277B} archetype; and also because he is able
to receive, within the limits of what is possible for him, the
whole of the divine beauty. And he called him a son, since
he is the inheritor o f the Fathers good things, and equal in
honor to the Father according to the gift o f grace.5
But when this man had wandered away like a lost sheep, $
God in His providence sought him like a shepherd andfound
him, and, placing him on His own shoulders, He returned him
to the sheepfold and to the fellow members o f his flock.6
When, like the image on the face o f the silver coin, man be
came tarnished by the passions and bereft of his original
beauty, the Word in His wisdom, as if lighting a lamp, made
His own flesh to shine by the light of His own divinity, and
found him, and made this finding the occasion of great joy,
insofar as it restored what had gone missing from the divine
decad.7 And like a good father He embraces him upon his
return like the son who was dead in his sin and lost in his ig
norance o f God, [1277C] restoring to him all the marks of
his former dignity, and, greatest and most mysterious of all,
He sacrifices for him the fatted calf whatever such a calf or
45

{see Lk 15:29] (

, ),

, ,
, ,
.
, , ,

,6 , .
6
{John 10:11}
{Lk 15:5}
,

{ Cor 1:24]
,
,
,
,
, .

, ,
.
46
AM BIGUUM 31
its strange sacrifice might signifythough I understand it

to be the supreme Word, who is supremely hidden and un
known, according to the incomprehensible and supremely
unknown mode o f His divine and ineffable providence,
whereas the sacrifice is His divinely fitting distribution to
beingsand He considers the return o f the son to be the
summit of ineffable joy, for it magnificently filled the dyad
of sons (whatever this might mean), just as the coin filled the
decad, and the sheep filled the flock o f one hundred. If you
agree, we can for the moment refrain from commenting on
{1277D} these numbers, and, God granting us the opportu
nity, undertake at some later time a detailed study of their
hidden meaning.
If, then, the Good Shepherdplaced man like a sheep on His 6
shoulders, and returned him to the flock; and if the Lord and
Savior, the Wisdom and Power o f God the Father, through His
Incarnation recovered man, who was like a lost silver coin,
stamped with the royal image; and if He received man back
as a good and compassionate father receives a son upon his
return, and placed him in the ranks o f the heavenly powers,
thereby filling the void in each heavenly number by the sal
vation of humanity, then it is clear that Christ God filled the
world above, by divinely bringing about on His own the sal
vation of all. [1280A}
Another contemplation o f the same

If you wish, we may contemplate the present difficulty in
another way Those who have made a careful study of the
47

,
, ,
. ,
,
,
.

,
,
7 , , ,
,
.
8

,

, ,
,

,
, ,
48
AM BIGUUM
31
nature o f beings say that one of natures laws is the unwaver

ing and unalterable permanence of the inner principle ac
cording to which each nature exists and came into being,
and it seems to me that any rational person hearing this
would agree that this is a correct definition of the law of na
ture. If, then, this is true, it is obvious that the law o f nature,
which by necessity preserves inviolate the principle of na
ture, likewise maintains natures place absolutely immov
able according to its position.8 But He who by law, reason,
and nature defined with wisdom each beings subsistence ac
cording to its species, while He Himself subsists beyond na
ture, and law, and intellect, and reason, and place, and mo
tion, in {1280B} no way operates within nature like any of
the things subject to nature. Instead, in a manner that is
natural to Himself, He actively performs and passively expe
riences the things o f nature in a manner beyond nature, in
both instances paradoxically preserving Himself inviolate
while experiencing them, alongwith the things He performs
and brings about, so that the integrity o f their natural im
mutability remains unchanged.
Thus, He Himself, being moved to draw near to us in the 8
lower world, truly became perfect man consistent with all
the positive marks o f humanity, without in any way moving
outside o f Himself, or experiencing any limitation to a par
ticular place; and He completely divinized us, without in
any way violating or essentially altering our nature, for hav
ing totally given the whole o f Himself, and asstuning the
whole o f man, in an ineffable and perfect union, He in no
way suffered any diminishment of His perfection. And in
truth the same one is whole God and whole man, {1280C]
49

.
, -
, .
8

9
, ,
' ,
[Rom n:i6; see Cor 5:6, 15:23; Gal
5:9},
'
, [John 1:1}, , [see John
17:20-26], [see 1 John 3:2]
.

[Hbr 4 :5> ,
' ' ,
.

, [Col
1:18; Eph 5 :3 } ,

50
AM BIGUUM
31
bearing witness within His own selfby the perfection of

the two natures in which He truly existsto the unchange
able and unalterable condition o f both. This is how God
abolishes the laws o f nature: He engages Himself with na
ture amid the things of nature in a way beyond nature.
Another interpretation o f the words:
The world above must be filled
If, then, Christ as man is the first fruits o f our nature in
relation to God the Father, and a kind o f yeast that leavens
the whole mass of humanity, so that in the idea o f His hu
manity' He is with God the Father, for He is the Word, who
never at any time has ceased from or gone outside o f His re
maining in the Father, {1280D] let us not doubt that, consis
tent with His prayer to the Father, we shall one day be where
He is now, the first fruits of our race. For inasmuch as He
came to be below- for our sakes and without change became
man, exactly like us but without sin, loosing the laws o f nature
in a manner beyond nature, it follows that we too, thanks to
Him, will come to be in the world above, and become gods
according to Him through the mystery o f grace, undergoing
no change whatsoever in our nature. And thus, according to
the wise teacher, the world above will again be filled, with
the members o f the body being gathered together with their
head, each according to its worth. Through the harmonious
architecture o f the Spirit,9each member, {1281A] according
to the degree o f its progress in virtue, will receive the place
5i
{Eph 1:23]
.
, , ,

,
,
, ,
[Eph 5:3)
,
, , ,
'

[Rom 6:5].
Ambiguum 32
JL-VK ,
, ,
' [Is 9:6} .
52
A M B IG U U M 32
that is appropriate to it, filling the body o f Him who fills all in
all, which fills and is filled from all things.
Thus, whether it is by the spiritual rebirth o f those who 10
are born according to Christ, as we said a moment ago, or
whether it is by the completion in Christ and through Christ
of the secret numbers of heavenI mean the one hundred
rational sheep, the ten intelligible silver coins, and the hon
orable reunion o f the two brothers or whether by the
gathering of the members o f the body in union with their head
and the first fruits o f the rising mass of humanity, the world
above will surely be filled, just as the teacher said. In fact,
{1281B} it has already been filled in Christ, and will be filled
again in those who become like Christ, when they, who have
already shared in the likeness o f His death through their suf
ferings, shall come to be natural outgrowths o f His resurrection,
Ambiguum 32
F ' rom Saint Gregorys same oration On the Nativity:
For to us a child is born, to us a Son is given, whose govern
ment is upon His shoulder, for He is exalted by means of
the cross.1
53
AM BIGUA TO JO H N

,
,
, , , ,
,
.
,

.
, ,
, , .
, ,
,
, , ,
, , ,
,
\|/
,
,
,
,

54
AM BIGU U M
32
Being wholly inspired by the Word, the great teacher 2

adds to the previous words,2 in accordance with the Word,
the word about the Word that the great prophet Isaiah
mystically spoke concerning the Incarnate [1281C} Word,
namely, whose government is upon His shoulder. By so do
ing, he indicated succinctly, as is his habit, how we are to un
derstand properly this government, by saying that He is
exalted by means of the cross. But because the cross, by
virtue o f the conceptions surrounding it, admits of many
contemplations, it is well worth searching for the concept
that the teacher had in mind when he identified the cross
with the principle of government. For the cross is contem
plated in light o f its shape, its composition, the characteris
tics o f its parts and its function, but also in light of many
other concepts, which are visible to those who love to be
hold divine realities.3
When contemplated in light o f its shape, the cross hints 3
at the power which embraces all thingsthings above and
things below, in both directionswithin their proper lim
its. In light o f {1281D] its composition, it points to essence,
providence, and judgment, that is, to their manifestations,
by which I mean wisdom, knowledge, and virtue, which be
long to the power that governs the universe. Essence and
wisdom, as the creative power, are seen in the vertical line;
providence and judgment, as the preserving power, are seen
in the horizontal; judgment and virtue, as that which de
stroys evil (and by which what has been created and pre
served is joined to its proper governing cause and origin),
are seen throughout the whole.4As for the properties o f the
parts, these are seen, on the one hand, through the [1284A}
vertical line, by which the cross signifies that God is alw ays
the same, never departing from His own permanence, by
55
AMB I G U A TO J O H N
,
, 1
,
2 , , ,
.
(

) 3
, , 4 ,
,

,
,

, ,
, ,
,

( ),

.
56
A M B IG U U M
32
virtue of His unshakeable and immovable abiding. The hori

zontal line, on the other hand, hints at creations absolute
dependence on God, for apart from Him it has no other
governing cause or basis o f existence. Finally, the activity
of the cross appears in the inactivity and mortification o f
those who have been nailed to it.5 It was, then, according to
this mode of contemplation, I think, that the teacher un
derstood the words of the prophet.
Every governmentfor it is good to draw on examples
from our own life to point to the truth of the realities that
are above ushas distinctive insignia, which make their
bearers known to all as persons who have received authority
from the emperor. Here one thinks o f the so-called [1284B}
codicilli, which are borne by the provincial governor, or the
sword that is the sign o f the duke, or the distinctive signs
and standards belonging to others in different offices.6
Moreover, these officials receive their insignia directly from
the emperor, and they carry them in their own hands, and
when they appear in public they place them in the care of
their most trusted retainers. In the same way, our Lord Jesus
Christ, according to the concept o f His humanity received
the symbols of His own government, His cross, and ap
peared in public bearing it upon His shoulders. He was the
first to bear it, but afterward He gave it to another to bear,
indicating through these things that whoever is entrusted
with governing must first lead those who are governed, by
complying with all the rules of government (for only thus
will his own rulings be acceptable), and then he can issue di
rectives to those who have been entrusted to him to per
form the same things. And if the insignia of the government
57
,
,
. '
, ,
.
5

,
( , ), ,
, ,
, - .

,
[Mt 16:24; M k 8:34; Lk 9:23],
,
,
.

,
,

,
,
,

.
A M B I G T J U M 32
{1284C} o f our Lord Jesus Christ is the cross, which He car

ried on His shoulders, we need to know the hidden meaning
that He wished to manifest by means of these shoulderings, which He Himself arranged and submitted to. Those
who possess scientific knowledge of symbols say that the
shoulder is a token o f ascetic practice, and the cross a sign
of dispassion, since it induces mortification.7
By means of these enigmas, then, our Lord and God experienced both o f the realities signified by themI mean
ascetic practice and perfect dispassion, so that practice
might not be debased by human vaingloryand He mani
fested this by His actions to those who were obedient to
Him, just as if He had cried out loudly and said: This is the
symbol o f my government. Anyone o f us, therefore, who
desires a place in such a government [1284D} must deny him
self, and take up his cross, andfollow Me, which means that he
must take up the life of ascetic practice (which mortifies the
passions), and lay hold of the goodness and beauty of His
bounty, for Christ desires that all should exercise govern
ment in the manner that He did. For when the God-bearing
teacher said, He is elevated by means of the cross, I be
lieve that with these words he was emphasizing for us the
fact that, when the rational nature of man is exalted through
ascetic practice and the dispassion that is paired with it,
{1285A] Christ Himself is said to be exalted, by which I
mean the form o f Christ8inherent within human beings
for it is this that rises upward, in proper sequence and or
der, and through dispassionate practice moves to the cogni
tive contemplation of nature, and from there to initiation in
theology.
59
"

,
,

,

,
,
5
,
,6
.

,
,
,
.
AM BIGU U M
32
It seems to me that this is exactly what the great Saint 6

Dionysios the Areopagite means when he says: Inasmuch
as the Divine is the governing origin and cause of the beauti
ful sacred orders, whereby the sacred intellects arrive at self
knowledge, he who reverts to the proper shew o f his own
nature will see what he is in light of the governing cause, and
will acquire this, the first holy gift, as a consequence of his
return to the light. Having looked rightly upon his own
proper condition with dispassionate eyes, he will depart
from the gloomy recesses of ignorance, but being imperfect
he will not, o f his own accord, at once desire the most per
fect unity and participation {1285B] in God, but little by lit
tle will be carried in an orderly and sacred manner through
the first things, to things more primary, and through these
to things most primal, and, when perfected, to the supreme
summit o f communion with the Divine.9
It is in this manner, then, according to that great and 7
godly-minded teacher, that the only exalted One is exalted
by means of the cross, for He is spiritually exalted through
us who are exalted according to Him, when, through ascetic
practice coupled with dispassion, we are led up to knowl
edge, and with minds free of matter we are raised up from
there to mystical contemplation and initiation into divine
realities, and even, I make bold to add, to participation
in God.
61
Ambiguum 33
J _/
' .

, , ,
, '
,

{Hbr 4^5} ,
( , ,
, {Mt
13:34}' ,
,
)

,
, ,
,
, ,
02
A M BIGU U M
33
Ambiguum 33
F r a m Saint Gregorys same oration On the Nativity:
The Logos becomes thick.1 {1285C]
When the God-bearing teacher says that the Logos becomes thick, I think he does so with the following ideas in
mind. Either because the Logos, who is simple and incorpo
real, and who spiritually nourishes all the divine powers in
heaven according to rank, deemed it worthy to become
thick through His manifestation in the flesh (which was
taken from us, and for us, and is consistent with us, but with
out sin), so that He might instruct us, by means ofwrords and
examples suited to us, in mysteries that transcend the power
of all human speech. (For we know that all that He said was in
theform o f parables, and that He said nothing without a parable,
for teachers typically have recourse to parables whenever
their pupils are not immediately able to follow them, and
so endeavor to lead them to [1285D] an understanding of
what is being said.) Or one could say that the Logos be
comes thick in the sense that for our sake He ineffably con
cealed Himself in the logoi of beings, and is obliquely signi
fied in proportion to each visible thing, as if through certain
letters, being "whole in whole things while simultaneously
remaining utterly complete and fully present, whole, and
without diminishment in each particular thing. He remains
undifferentiated and always the same in beings marked by
difference; simple and without composition in things that
63
tv
,
,
,
,
,
,
, .
Ambiguum 34
JL-/K ,
, ,

.
,
, .
,
64
AM BIGU U M 34
are compounded; without origin in things that have a be

ginning; invisible in things that are seen; and incapable o f
being touched in all that is palpable. Or one could say that
the Logos becomes thick in the sense that, for the sake
o f our thick minds, He consented to be both embodied and
expressed through letters, [1288A] syllables, and sounds, so
that from all these He might gradually gather those who fol
low Him to Himself, being united by the Spirit, and thus
raise us up to the simple and unconditioned idea of Him,
bringing us for His own sake into union with Himself by
contraction to the same extent that He has for our sake ex
panded Himself according to the principle of condescen
sion.2
Ambiguum 34
- F rom Saint Gregorys same oration On the Nativity:
Not from those things that He is in Himself <can we
know God>, but from those things that are around
Him, selecting one impression from out of another,
and combining them into some sort o f image of the
truth.1 [1288B}
From those things that pertain to Gods essence, that 2
is, from the essence itself, it has never at any time been
known what God is. For to have even an idea o f what God
might be is impossible and completely beyond the reach of
65
,
, ,
,
.
, , ,
, , ,
, ,

, ,
1
,
.
,

,
, ,
, ,
,
,
,

.
66
a m b i g u u m
34
all creation, whether risible or invisible. Moreover, from

those things that are around the essence, we learn only that
God exists, and when these things are contemplated prop
erly and piously God yields Himself up to those who gaze
upon Him. But all the things that are around the essence
do not disclose what the essence itself is, but what it is not,
such as not being created, not having a beginning, not being
finite, not being corporeal, and any other such things that
are around the essence, and indicate what it is not, but not
what it is. And this is true even of the principles o f provi
dence and judgment, according to which the universe is
wisely governed, and with which the harmonious contem
plation o f nature around God is said to take place, which
shows only [1288C] by analogy that its Creator exists. To be
sure, negations stand in opposition to affirmations, becom
ing amicably interwoven with each other around God, each
entering into and reciprocally complementing the other.
Thus the negative statements indicate not that the Divine is
something, but rather what it is not, and these are in com
pliance with the affirmations around that something (which
the Divine is not). And the affirmations, which indicate
solely that the Divine exists, but not in anyway what it is,
are united with the negations around that something (which
the Divine is not). To the extent that the negations and affir
mations are taken in relation to each other, they express op
position through antithesis, but when they are referred to
God, they reveal their intimate relation by the manner in
which the two extremes mutually condition each other.
{1288D}
67
Ambiguum 35
J l _/k , 1
,
, 2
, .
2
'
'
,
, ,
,
,

,

,

, ,
,
,
,
68
A M B IG U U M 35
Ambiguum 35
-Fi:om Saint Gregorys same oration On the Nativity:
But since this did not suffice to Goodnessto move
solely within self-contemplationit was necessary
that the Good should overflow and make progress, so
that a greater number o f beings would benefit.1
When I asked that great and wise elder (whom I have al- 2
ready mentioned several times)2 about this passage, he told
me that, with these wwds, the great and God-bearing Greg
ory' wished to make it clear that God is one in Himself, as
being strictly one, possessing absolutely nothing different
within His nature that may be contemplated together with
Him, but instead uniquely possesses within Himself an in
conceivable, eternal, infinite, and incomprehensible perma
nence, from which, by virtue of an ever-giving effusion3 of
goodness, He brought forth beings out of nothing [1289A]
and endowed them with existence, and also willed to impart
Himself without defilement to them in a manner propor
tionate to all and to each, bestowing upon each the pow'er to
exist and to remain in existence, according to the great and
godlike saint, Dionysios the Areopagite, who said that the
the Oneness o f God must be praised, for by transcending
all things, and owing to its goodness, it brought into being
the entire order o f intelligible beings, and the beauty of the
visible ones, so that, according to some ineffable principle
of wisdom, He exists without diminution in each of the
69
AM BIGU A TO JO H N
v'l ,
, 8 ,
.
, ,
' ,
.
Ambiguum 36
,
,
.
, , , ,
, ,
{see Gen 2:7} , {see Gen 1:26}
{Gen 1:26], {see Gen 3:9])
, ,
,
.
70
AM BIGU U M
36
created things in a manner proportionate to each, without

being contained by them in any way, being present in some
bv the excess o f His munificent effusion, in others by a more
measured impartation, and in others so that they are able
to reflect only a glimmer o f His goodness.4 Perhaps, then,
this, as far as my foolishness allows me to see, is what is
meant by the effusion o f the Good and its progress,
namely, that the [1289B} one God is multiplied in the impar
tation o f good things proportionally to the recipients.
Ambiguum 36
F r o m Saint Gregorys same oration On the Nativity:
He communicates a second communion, far more
marvelous than the first.1
It was not so amazing, I think, though it was clearly
something great, for G od to bring into communion with
Himself, through the infusion of breath, the first formation
of human nature (which was pure, since it was honored by
His own hand), granting to that likeness a share of the di
vine beauty' according to His imageas it was for Him to deign
to draw' near to it after it had been stained, and ran from
Him (on account of the passions with which it was smeared),
[1289CI and to enter into intimate communion with it,
and to partake o f what was inferior, and to heighten the
miracle by means of a marvelous union with things utterly
7i
AM BIGU A TO JO H N

,
, ,

,
,

,1 ,
,
,

, .

,
.
Ambiguum 37
........
-1/ ,
,
{see Lk 1:41],
72
AM BIGU U M
37
beyond mixture with Him. In the first instance, nature did

not in any way whatsoever obtain unity with God according
to mode or principle either o f substance or hypostasis, ac
cording to which all beings universally are seen to exist.
Now, however, through the ineffable union, nature has ob
tained unity with God according to hypostasis, preserving
unaltered, on the level o f its essence, its proper principle of
difference in relation to the divine essence, with respect to
which it has become one and not different, by virtue of hav
ing been united to it in a union according to hypostasis, so
that with regards to the principle o f its being (according to
which it was created and exists), nature should continue to
abide with its essence strictly intact and in every way undi
minished, while with regards to the principle o f how it does
exist, it should receive its subsistence in a divine manner, so
that it would neither know nor admit of absolutely any im
pulse of movement {1289D] toward anything else. In this
way, the Word entered into communion with human na
ture in a way that was far more marvelous than the first,
essentially uniting nature to Himself in a union according to
hypostasis.
Ambiguum 37
F rom Saint Gregorys same sermon On the Nativity:
Now then receive together with me the conception
(i.e., o f Christ) and leap before Him for joy, if not like
73
AM BIGU A TO JO H N
[2 Kings 6:1-17;
1 Par 6:31; Ps 3(32):8].
2

, ,
,
,
,

. ,
{see 2 Kings
12:13},
{2 Kings
5:25},
. , ,
.

{see Lk 1:41}, {see 2 Kings
6:2-5, 175
.
,

,
,
74
AMBIGUUM 3 7
John in the womb, then at least like David at the repose

o f the ark)
The great John is not only an image of repentance, the 2
[1292A} dispassion of practical philosophy, and cognitive
contemplation (for he is the first as a preacher and baptizer,
the second as a hermit completely separated from the world,
and the third as a Levite and priest and forerunner o f God
the Word), but he is also a symbol o f the unchanging habit
of mind that is common to them all, because from his moth
ers womb until his death he maintained his soul at its full
intensity in all o f them. David, on the other hand, is an im
age of confession, the practical life, and contemplation, as
first the shepherd, then the king o f the tribe of Judah, and
then the destroyer o i enemy tribes. In relation to these things,
however, he is not a symbol of an unchanging habit of mind.
For he fell subsequent to receiving knowledge, succumbing
to a human weakness, and did not preserve unchanged the
habit o f virtue and knowledge. Perhaps this is why it is not
{1292B} written o f him, as it is of the great John, that he an
ticipated the Word by leaping in his mothers womb, but
<that he leaped> only after the enemy tribes were utterly de
stroyed and the ark had come to its rest, that is, after the de
parture of the passions and the return of knowledge.
John, therefore, is a type of ail those who through repen- 3
tance are spiritually reborn in virtue and knowledge, and
who through progress reach the end of their course having
maintained their habit o f mind unchanged. David, on the
other hand, is a type o f all those who have fallen after
attaining knowledge, and who afterward through repen-
75

.

,

, , ,
,
,

,

, '
,
,
, 1
,
,
,
,
,
[see Kings 4:12-18}.
4
, ,
, [Ps 32(33);3.
95(96);> 97(9^):!) ! 49 :}) ,
76
AM BIGU U M
37
tance restored to the soul the gladness of divine joy that is

found in virtue and knowledge. Now insofar as the great
teacher is a man of few words, he spiritually and intellec
tively compressed the potential breadth of meaning con
tained in the words cited above,2 and so compared those
who hear divine words to the great John and David [1292c]
through their respective habits o f mind. For it is surely to
one o f the two, as it seems to me (in light of what we have
said about each of them), that anyone living a pious life will
correspond, as if the teacher were plainly saying: 11 o f you,
who through repentance have conceived within yourselves
the divine principle of virtue and knowledge, should strive
to maintain, either like John or David, the divine leaping of
joy. That is, either, like the great John, through a habit of
mind that remains unchanged from the beginning to the
end of your progress, without ever being drawn away by any
form of evil or ignoranceor, short o f this, in the manner of
the blessed David, so that, even i f something unwished for
has befallen you on the divine path, you will labor strenu
ously to repent, {1292D} and to restore virtue and knowl
edge to yourselves through patient endurance and the prac
tice o f the divine commandments, lest you suffer the fate of
the priest Eli, negligently exposing to the passions the di
vine ark of virtue and knowledge, and,falling backwardby the
gates of the temple of Shiloh, you die, breaking the back o f the
practical life.
I
think that our blessed father teaches the same thing 4
more clearly in his oration on the New Sunday,3 when he
says: We are exhorted to sing to the Lord a new song whether,
after being dragged away by sin into the evil confusion of
Babylon, [1293A} we have returned safely to Jerusalem (for
77
,
8 8 {Ps 30(37):4 >
8 ' ,
,
, .

,
, ,
,

,
, , , , , , , , , , , , ,
, , ,
,

, ,
, , ,
,
, ,
,
AM BIGUUM
37
there we could not sing the divine song in a foreign land, but
here we have found a new song and a new way of life), or
whether we have remained in what is morally beautiful and
have established our permanence in it or continue to make
progress and persevere in this process through the Spirit
who makes all things new.4 These things then, put forward
conjecturally, to the extent that my mindlessness allows, are
what I think the teacher had in mind when he said: Now,
however, receive with me the conception and leap for joy,
and if not like John in the womb, then at least like David at
the repose o f the ark, for the things we have unfolded here
at length, he compressed by the mode of contemplation ac
cording to rank and genus.
For according to those who study these mysteries with $
precision, and {1293B] the lovers and devoted visionaries
o f the spiritual principles that pertain to them, the general
principle o f scriptural contemplation, though it happens to
be one, is seen to expand in a tenfold manner: by place, time,
genus, person, rank (that is, occupation), by practical, nat
ural, and theological philosophy, by present and by future
(that is, by type and truth). When, on the other hand, this
principle is contracted, the first five modes are reduced to
three, and the three to two, and the two are completely en
folded in the one principle that is not in any way suscepti
ble of numeration.5 For example, the five modes o f place,
time, genus, person, and rank are contracted into the sec
ond three, namely, the modes of practical, natural, and theo
logical philosophy, and these three in turn are united with
the next two, which signify present and future, and these
last two are gathered into the perfecting, and simple (as they
say), and ineffable inner principle that contains them all,
79
, ' ,
,
.
6
,
, , , ,
, , , ,
, , ,

, ,
,
, , , , , ,
, , , , , , ,
, , , ,
, ,

,
, , , , ,
, ,
,
,
, , , , , ,
,
,

AM BIGUUM 37
from which {1293C} the universal set o f ten modes for the
contemplation o f Scripture comes forth in procession, and
to which they return (for therein lies its origin as a ten
fold reality'), being gathered up in an ascending movement
through contraction back into a monad.6
Now the inner principle o f Scripture is contemplated ac- 6
cording to time whenever the when, or the was, or the
is, or the shall be, or the before that, or the present,
or the after which, and the in the course of which, and
the from the beginning, and the past, and the future,
are used to indicate years, seasons, months, weeks, days,
nights, and their various divisions, and in general anything
that is indicative o f time. The mode o f place is contem
plated when heaven, earth, air, the sea, the inhabited world,
the limits of that world, countries, islands, cities, temples,
villages, fields, mountains, ravines, roads, rivers, deserts,
winepresses, threshing floors, and vineyards are mentioned,
and in general with whatever can be characterized as a place.
The category o f genus [1293D} emerges whenever any gen
eral mention is made of angels, or o f any of the other ranks
of intellective beings that adorn the heavens, as well as o f
things like the sun, the moon, the stars, fire, and whatever
is in the air, or on the earth, or in the sea, whether animals,
zoophytes,7 or plants, and whatever materials are extracted
from the earth and worked by man and his arts, and what
ever is like these thingsand also, in a special way, men, na
tions, peoples, languages, tribes, clans, and the like, with or
without number. Genus is further distinguished by person
when the name o f a particular angel or archangel or sera
phim is given (or of any o f the other intellective beings
81
AM BIGUA TO JO H N
,

, Si ,
,
.
7

, ,
, ,
, , ,
, ,
, , ,

, (
,
, ,
. ,
, ,
,
,
,
82
AM BIGU U M
37
residing in the heavens), or when it gives the name o f Abra

ham, Isaac, or Jacob, or any other name mentioned in Scrip
ture, regardless if the name in question is held up for praise
or blame; [1296A} and again into rank, whenever it describes
something as a kingdom or a king, or a shepherd or a flock,
or a priest or priesthood, or a farmer, or a general, or a
builder, and in general any activity with which human beings
are occupied.
For all o f these things, which our discussion has shown
to be contained within the five modes, are, in their primary
divisions, constituted o f substance, potency, and activity,
whether they move or are moved, or whether they are acted
on or act, or whether they contemplate or are contemplated,
whether they speak or are spoken, whether they teach or are
taught, whether they call for acceptance or rejection, and
simply, to speak concisely, whether in an active or in a pas
sive manner they introduce us to practical, natural, and
theological philosophy by means o f their variegated combi
nation with one another. To be sure, each o f the things we
have named can be understood under various modes {1296B}
through concepts about it gathered through contemplation,
in away that denotes either praise or blame, and it manifests
the principles that pertain to it, whether these should be
practiced or avoided, whether they are natural or unnatural,
intelligible or unintelligible. For, as I have said, there is a
double mode for each item, according to the capacity of the
person who undertakes an intelligent examination o f their
respective contemplation. Through, then, the affirmation
o f those principles that are practicable, natural, and intelli
gible, and the negation o f those that are not to be practiced,
are unnatural, and are mere mindless imaginings, the pious
83

, , .
8

,
.

'
,
.
,
[see Col 2:17; Hbr 10:1].

,
,2
, , .
. '
, , ,
.

,
, ,
,
[John 1:1],
,
84
AM BIGUUM
37
will attain to practical, natural, and theological philosophy,

which is the same as saying the love of God.
And these three modes of philosophy are further divided $
into present and future, for like a shadow they stand in re
lation to truth, type, and archetype.8 That man is able, in
[1296C} this present age, in a manner that is lofty' and be
yond nature, to reach the most extreme measure o f virtue
and knowledge and wisdom, and attain the science o f divine
realities, is something that occurs through the types and im
ages of the archetypes. This is because everything that is
now reckoned by us to be truth is in fact a type, and the
shadow and image o f the greater Word. For the Word, who
created all things, and who is in all things according to the
relation o f present to the future, is comprehended both in
type and in truth, in which He is present both in being and
manifestation, and yet He is manifested in absolutely noth
ing, for inasmuch as He transcends the present and the fu
ture, He transcends both type and truth, for He contains
nothing that might be considered contrary to Him. But
truth has a contrary: falsehood. Therefore the Word in
whom the universe is gathered transcends the truth, and
also, insofar as He is man and God, [1296D] He truly tran
scends all humanity and divinity.
Therefore the first five modes, through the multiform 9
contemplation to which they are subject, are gathered to
gether into practical, natural, and theological philosophy
and these three are further gathered into the modes of pres
ent and future, that is, type and truth. Present and future, in
turn, are gathered up in the beginning, that is, in the Word
who is in the beginning who enables the worthy to experi
ence and see Him, for, in the manner described above, they
85
,
Si
, 3
,

. ,
,
,
,
.
, ,
4

, .
, ,
, , ,
, ,
{see Lk 1:41}.

, , ,
, .

, ,
,
, ,
86
AM BIGUUM
37
diligently pursued their course to Him, and it was for Him

that they transformed into a monad what for their sakes had
become a decad, which expelled from them every impas
sioned movement whether natural [1297A} or intellectual,
and which by divine grace formed within them, throughout
their whole habit of mind, the quality of simplicity that is
natural to the Divine. We should also know this: the princi
ples of providence and judgment have been planted within
natural and practical philosophy respectively, consistent
with the modes that are proper to them, and they come to
light through the contemplation both of beings and o f
things coming into being.
These things, then, as I have said, were what that godly- 10
minded teacher was thinking, and it seems to me that
whereas he quite fittingly identified the saints by the modes
of genus and rank which belong to them through contem
plation, he also identified the great John by the mode o f
place. This is because Saint John, as a preacher of repen
tance, is an image of the practical life, as a hermit he is an
image o f dispassion, and as a Levite and priest he is an image
of cognitive contemplation. And inasmuch as he leaped in his
mothers womb {1297B} at the approach of the Word, he is
a symbol o f an unchanging habit of virtue and knowledge.
Saint David, on the other hand, as a Judean and a shepherd,
is an image of practical philosophy arrived at through con
fession; but as the king of Israel he represents initiation into
contemplation. The genus o f Saint John is the nation and
tribe from which he had his existence, while his rank and
occupation were preaching and the priesthood; his place
was the desert in which he dwelled. The same is true for
Saint David: his genus is his nation and tribe, while his
87
, ' , ,

,
.
Ambiguum 38
JC /K ,
[see Mt 2:3-4>
. ,
[see M t 2:15}, .
2
, ,

.
, ,
.
, ,
, , ' ,
, ,
, ,
[Ex y.-j\ Act 7:34>
88
AM BIGUUM
38
occupation, that is, his rank, is that of shepherd and king.

By means of these modes, each of these saints, when seen
for what he is in light of the proper principle of the modes
that apply to him, unfailingly reveals the mystery that is
made known through him. {1297C}
Ambiguum 38
F r o m Saint Gregorys same oration On the Nativity:
If He flees into Egypt, eagerly flee together with Him,
for it is good to flee together with the persecuted
Christ. Should He linger in Egypt, call Him out of
Egypt, for there He is rightly worshiped.1
In addition to knowing that the Lord fled to Egypt, I
think one also needs to know' who was persecuting Him.
The Lord does not simply flee to Egypt, but He is perse
cuted by Herod, who at that time was ruling in the land o f
Judea. They say that Herod means passion, made o f skin,
and nature. Egypt, too, is understood in many ways, ac
cording to the meanings o f w'hich it admits through the
modes o f contemplation. Sometimes it designates the pres
ent {1297D} w o rid, or sometimes the flesh, at other times it
designates sin, or ignorance, or affliction, and it is surely in
89

.
, )
,
,

[see Cor 15:47; Rom 8 :6 ],
,

[see Mt 2:20},

, , ,
,
, , , 8 ,
,
, [Is 19:1}

1
.
,
.
3

,

.
90
A M BIGU U M
38
this last sense that we should understand the Lords flight to

Egypt. So it is good to flee together with Christ to Egypt,
that is, together with the divine discerning reason that
dwells within us (which is now persecuted on account o f His
infancy because of our infancy, for we are infants compared
to Him), pursued by the earthly mind that still reigns and
rules over us from the impassioned movements of the flesh,
leading us to the [1300A] afflictions o f the practical life,
until such time as the advent of dispassion informs us o f the
death of those who sought the life o f the most divine reason,
which lives like a child within us. What they seek to kill is
the rational life within us which is perfected in God, and
they rage to destroy the form o f Christ, that is, our habit of
mind, for it is through our free and unhesitating power of
choice, as if through a light cloud, that He sets foot on our
Egypt, that is, the flesh, and throws down headlong its move
ments and passions, as if they were so many handmade idols,
and thus He sets in motion the foundation and seat o f the
soul and completely sweeps it aside, and having removed all
the idols, redirects worship to Himself, as is right.2 It is in
this manner, then, that it is good for us to flee together
with the persecuted Christ, {1300B] receiving, through our
voluntary affliction, dispassion as a good reward for our
flight with Him.
Again, we call Christ out o f Egypt, when, subsequent to
the departure of the passions and their complete mortifica
tion, we neither allow the divine, discerning reason within
us to dwell mindlessly on contrivances concerning things
that do not exist, nor cede a place within ourselves or others
for the Word to be known solely as flesh. But after preparing
ourselves properly and faithfully in the types o f practical
9i

,
,

,
|
[John 1:14}.

,
,
.
'
,
,
,
{see E x 2:11
12}. , ,
.
2 .

,
,

,
{2 Cor 4:16],
92
AM BIGU U M
38
philosophy that require affliction for the acquisition o f the

virtues, let us ascend through contemplation from these to
the knowledge o f which they are types and preliminary
markings, as if ascending properly from a kind of Egypt to
the land ofjudea, teaching those with us also to ascend; and
from knowing Christ the Word as flesh, let us through the
practical life pass over to the [1300C] glory that is the knowl
edge of Him as the only-begotten Son o f the Father.
This, then, is how someone can rightly and reverently 4
flee together with the persecuted Christ, and this is how
he can also call him, passing beyond the practical life to
contemplation and knowledge, doing all things with the
Word, according to the Word, and for the Word. And do not
think it strange that Egypt is understood here as the af
fliction necessary for the acquisition of virtue, but consider
carefully what has been written in the Old Testament, for
not only were the Israelites afflicted by the making of bricks,
but with the advent o f Moses the Egyptians themselves
were plagued with death. For Egypt means both affliction
and darkness, as I said a moment ago, but through con
templation the subject o f every proper interpretation gen
erally admits the notion either o f what is praiseworthy or
deserving of {1300D] censure. If, therefore, the flesh flour
ishes and burgeons, the soul is oppressed by the passions
and plunged into darkness (because the h abit of the virtues
and the light o f knowledge have receded). Conversely when
the soul is fortified and made resplendent with the divine
beauty of the virtues, and shines with th e light of knowl
edge, the outer man wastes away, for with th e advent of the
Word, the soul puts o ff the natural vigor o f the flesh, in
93
,
8 ,
0 ob 4 0 :11], -
,
,

{Rom 8:6 ]
,
,
,

,
, ; , ,
[ C or 15:55],

,

3
,
.
Ambiguum 39
,

{see Rom 3:23], ,
94
AM BIGU U M
39
which lies hidden, or rather over which rules, the dragon

whose power is the navel, like an invisible Pharaoh scatter
ing good things,3 slithering like a serpent and sinking the
teeth of sin into the soul. Yet with the gradual eradication of
the mind o f flesh through the hardships o f the practical life,
[1301A] he ebbs away like a dissolving corpse, leaving not
even so much as a trace o f his former tyranny, so that those
who have attained their freedom through Christ can cry
out, even before the general resurrection (on account o f the
voluntary resurrection of their will that has already taken
place), and say: Death, where is thy sting? Hades, where is thy
victory? In other w'ords, the pleasure of the flesh and its
affinitive power to deceive the soul through ignorance,
by means o f which, before the advent o f Christ, the all
abominable devil held sway over human nature, and without
pity wounded it with the sting o f pleasure, relentlessly driv
ing it to destruction by the sword o f deception. [1301B]
Ambiguum 39
F rom Saint Gregorys oration On the Theophany:
So if they were absolutely bound to be impious, and to
fall away from the glory o f God, being led astray to
idols and fabrications of art and things fashioned by
95
,
.
2
,
,

. ,

, .
,
( ), ,
, ,
,
, ,
, , .
96
AM BIGUUM 39
hands, men o f sense could not imprecate anything

worse upon them than that they might worship and
honor such things.1
You stated that, when these words were read, some o f 2
those who were listening denounced the teacher, saying that
it was not right for men of sense, and who intend to live
according to the Gospel, to be imprecating that others
might worship and honor such things. To these people I
have nothing of my own to say, but I will share with you
what I once learned about this from a certain elder, who was
wise in divine matters, and who greatly esteemed the teach
ing of the fathers.2 Our holy and {130 iC } blessed father and
teacher, Gregory, my good sirsfor I will address these men
as if they were presentseeing that previously the Greeks
were so mindlessly deluded, and had wandered so far away
from the notion o f the true God, uttered these words ac
cording to the law o f compassion, so that, by means of an
extensive refutation (for their sake) o f the arguments in fa
vor of their form o f worship, the transition from the mind
less and futileindeed I should say abominableworship
of theirs to the right faith might be easier for them and
come about with less danger of any o f them being swept
away into heresy, since their delusion would be so obvious to
all and easy to detect that it would not conceal the hidden
evil from anyone who claims to be honest. [1301D]
97
Ambiguum 40
,
, ,
.
2

,
, ,
, ,
, ,
,
,

,
. ,
, ,
,
{Ps 44(45):3> , ,
'
98
AM BIGU U M
40
Ambiguum 40
F
rom Saint Gregorys same oration On the Theophany:

Where there is purification, there is also illumination,
and illumination is the fulfillment o f longing among
those who desire the greatests, or the greatest, or
something beyond what is great.1
Those who comprehend divine mysteries say that where 2

there is purification o f the soul by the virtues, there is also
illumination by knowledge, subsequent to pious reflection
on beings.2This illumination raises up the soul to the under
standing [1304A} o f God, and unites its desire with the ulti
mate object of its desire, which is God, who properly speak
ing exists in and is known in the greatests, in the greatest,
and in beyond what is great. He is known in the great
ests, since He exists in three hypostases that are one in
essence and power, and which are unconfused by virtue of
the precise and unalterable property o f each, by which I
mean ingenerateness, generation, and procession. And (He
is known) in the greatest, that is, in the unity; identity,
and uniqueness of the Godhead according to essence; and as
beyond what is great, since the Divine is not circum
scribed by any quantity, magnitude, or spatial extension,3
nor is it marked o ff by any limits. For every magnitude is
strictly limited, whereas the Divine alone is limitless, as the
great David says: The Lord is great, andgreatly to bepraised, and
there is no limit to [1304B] His majesty, insofar as the Divine is
not limited by any boundary For this reason the Divine is
99
,

,
' ,
,
.

. 1
, ,

, , , ,
.

,
', ,
, .

.
AMBIGUXJM
40
infinite, and transcends absolutely all the concepts of time

or nature that have been devised by those who follow the
technical method of logical syllogisms.4For these men have
proved to be completely useless in the discovery o f the
truth, since they are incapable o f believing in the existence
of anything that cannot be apprehended by their thoughts.
The teacher himself makes it clear that this is his meaning, since he uses these same expressions in other places.
Thus, in his oration On the Arrival of those from Egypt,
while expounding theologically on the uncreated and divine
essence, and on the created nature that received a beginning
of its being, he says that The one is called God, and subsists
in three greatests, namely: {1304C} the Cause, Creator, and
Perfecter, by which I mean the Father, the Son, and the
Holy Spirit.5 And again, in his oration On Baptism, in
speaking o f one and the same holy Divinity in three holy hy
postases, he says: In every respect it is equal, in every re
spect it is the same, just as the beauty and greatness of
heaven is one, it is an infinite cohesion o f three infinite
Ones.6 As you can see, to those who possess more than a
merely superficial acquaintance with his divine orations, the
teacher interprets himself. [1304D}
ior
A.MBIGUA T O J O H N
Ambiguum 41
F Mf ,
, .

[Lk 1:2},
,
1

.

,
, . ,
,
, .
,
. ,
.
,
, , ,
10 2
a m b ig u u m
41
Ambiguum 41
F
rom Saint Gregorys same oration On the Theophany:

The natures are innovated, and God becomes man.1
Having received the greater part of the divine mysteries

handed down to them in succession from those who before
them were the followers and ministers o f the Word, and be
ing directly initiated into the knowledge of beings through
these mysteries, the saints say that the existence o f all things
that have come into being is marked by five divisions.2 The
first of these, they say, is that which divides the uncreated
nature from the whole o f created nature, which received its
being through a process o f becoming. For they say that
whereas God in His goodness [1305A] created the splendid
orderly arrangement of all beings, it is not immediately self
evident to this orderly arrangement who and what God is,
and they call division the ignorance o f what it is that dis
tinguishes creation from God. For to that which naturally
divides these realities from each other, and which excludes
their union in a single essence (since it cannot admit o f one
and the same definition), they did not give a name. The sec
ond is that according to which the totality' o f nature, which
received its being through creation by God, is divided into
the intelligible and the sensible.3The third is that according
to which sensible nature is divided into heaven and earth.
The fourth is that according to which the earth is divided
into paradise and the inhabited world; and the fifth is that
103
AM BIGUA TO JO H N
,
2

,

,

,
,
,
.
3

{see Gen 1:26},
,
, ,
,
,
,
,

,
,
AM BIGUUM
41
according to which man, who is above alllike a most capa

cious workshop containing all things,4 naturally mediating
through himself all the divided extremes, and who by design
has been [1305B} beneficially placed amid beingsis divided
into male and female, manifestly possessing by nature the
full potential to draw all the extremes into unity through
their means, by virtue of his characteristic attribute of be
ing related to the divided extremes through his own parts.5
Through this potential, consistent with the purpose behind
the origination o f divided beings, man was called to achieve
within himself the mode o f their completion, and so bring
to light the great mystery of the divine plan, realizing in
God the union o f the extremes which exist among beings,
by harmoniously advancing in an ascending sequence from
the proximate to the remote and from the inferior to the su
perior.6
This is why man was introduced last among beings7like
a kind o f natural bond mediating between the universal
extremes through his parts, and unifying [1305C} through
himself things that by nature are separated from each other
by a great distanceso that, by making o f his own division a
beginning of the unity which gathers up all things to God
their Author, and proceeding by order and rank through the
mean terms, he might reach the limit o f the sublime ascent
that comes about through the union o f all things in God, in
whom there is no division, completely shaking off from na
ture, by means o f a supremely dispassionate condition of di
vine virtue, the property o f male and female, which in no
way was linked to the original principle of the divine plan
concerning human generation, so that he might be shown
forth as, and become solely a human being according to the
105
,
'
,
', , , , .3
4

, ,
,

, ,
,
,

,

, , ,
.

,
,

,

AM BIGUUM
41
divine plan, not divided by the designation of male and fe

male (according to the principle by which he formerly came
into being), nor divided into the parts that now appear
around him, [1305D] thanks to the perfect union, as I said,
with his own principle, according to which he exists.
Then, once he had united paradise and the inhabited 4
world through his own proper holy way of life, man would
have fashioned a single earth, not divided by him in the dif
ference of its parts, but rather gathered together, for to
none o f its parts would he be subjected. After this, having
united heaven and earth through a life identical in virtue in
every manner with that of the angels (as much as this is hu
manly possible),8 he would have made the sensible creation
absolutely identical and indivisible {1308A} with itself, not
in any way dividing it into places separated by distances, for
he would have become nimble by means of the spirit, with
out any corporeal weight holding him to the earth, and thus
proceed unhindered in his ascent to the heavens, for his
intellect would no longer behold such things, but hasten
purely to God, and in the wisdom o f his gradual ascent to
God, just as if he were traveling on an ordinary road, he
would naturally overcome any obstacles standing in his way.
Then, once he had united intelligible and sensible reali- 5
ties through knowledge equal to that of the angels,9 he
would have made the whole o f creation one single creation,
not divided by him in terms of knowledge and ignorance,
since his cognitive science o f the principles of beings would
be completely equal to the knowledge of the angels. {1308B]
Owing to this knowledge, the ever-giving effusion10 o f true
wisdom integrally and immediately endows the worthy (as
much as possible) with a concept o f God that is beyond
10 7

, '
(
) ! ' ,
,
, , ,
, ,
, ,
,
, , .
6
, ,
, , ,
,4 ,
{Gen 1:26, 28},
,

,
,
,
, ,
,
, {see Lk
9:56, 15:4],
,
5 (
8
AM BIGU U M
41
understanding or explanation. And finally, in addition to all

this, had man united created nature with the uncreated
through love (oh, the wonder of Gods love for mankind!),
he would have shown them to be one and the same by the
state o f grace, the whole man wholly pervading the whole
God, and becoming everything that God is, without, how
ever, identity in essence, and receiving the whole o f God in
stead o f himself, and obtaining as a kind of prize for his as
cent to God the absolutely unique God, who is the goal of
the motion of things that are moved, and the firm and un
moved stability of things that are carried along to Him, and
the limit (itself limitless and infinite) of every definition, or
der, {1308C} and law, whether of mind, intellect, or nature.
But moving naturally, as he was created to do, around the 6
unmoved, as his own beginning (by which I mean God), was
not what man did. Instead, contrary to nature, he willingly
and foolishly moved around the things below him, which
God had commanded him to have dominion over. In this way
he misused his natural, God-given capacity to unite what is
divided, and, to the contrary, divided what was united, and
thus was in great danger o f lamentably returning to nonbe
ing. This was why the natures were innovated, so that, in a
paradox beyond nature, the One who is {1308D] completely
immobile according to His nature moved immovably, so to
speak, around that which by nature is moved, and God be
came man11 in order to save lost man, andafter He had
united through Himself the natural fissures running through
the general nature of the universe, and had revealed the uni
versal preexisting principles of the parts (through which the
10 9
AMB I GCA TO JO H N
) ,
1 0 , , '
{Eph :], {Col 1:16}.
7

, ,
, [Hbr 4:15],

, ,

,
{see Ps
48(49):!2],
, , , ,
.
{see Hbr 7:3}
, , {Gal
3:28}.

,
, , ,
[Lk 23:43}

,
no
AM BIGU U M
41
union of what is divided naturally comes about)to fulfill

the great purpose of God the Father, recapitulating all things,
both in heaven and on earth, in Himself, in whom they also had
been created.
To be sure, initiating the universal union o f all things in 7
Himself, beginning with our own [1309A} division, He be
came perfect man, having assumed from us, and for us, and
consistent with us, everything that is ours, lacking nothing,
but without sin, for to become man He had no need of the
natural process of connubial intercourse. In this way, He
showed, I think, that there was perhaps another mode, fore
known by God, for the multiplication of human beings, had
the first human being kept the commandment and not cast
himself down to the level of irrational animals by misusing
the mode of his proper powersand so He drove out from
nature the difference and division into male and female, a
difference, as I have said, which He in no way needed in or
der to become man, and without which existence would
perhaps have been possible. There is no need for this divi
sion to last perpetually, fo r in Christ Jesus, says the divine
[1309B} apostle, there is neither male norfemale.12
Then, having sanctified our inhabited world by the dig- 8
nity o f His conduct as man, He proceeded unhindered to
paradise after His death, just as He truly promised to the
thief, saying: Today, you w ill be with me in paradise. Conse
quently, since there was for Him no difference between par
adise and our inhabited world, He appeared on it, and spent
time together with His disciples after His resurrection from
in
AM BIGUA TO JO H N
,
, ,
,
. [Lk 24:51; Act 1:9]
, ,
, ,

,
. ,

,
[see Eph 2:6}, ,
.
9

, '
, ,
[Hbr 9:24} ,
[see Rom 5: 9
[see 1 Cor 2:7; Eph 1:5,
11},

,
1X2
AM BIGU U M
41
the dead, demonstrating that the earth is one and not di

vided against itself, for it preserves the principle of its exis
tence free of any difference caused by division. Then, by His
ascension into heaven, it is obvious that He united heaven
and earth, for He entered heaven with His earthly body,
which is of the same nature and consubstantial with ours,
[1309C} and showed that, according to its more universal
principle, all sensible nature is one, and thus He obscured
in Himself the property o f division that had cut it in two.
Then, in addition to this, having passed with His soul and
body, that is, with the whole of our nature, through all the
divine and intelligible orders of heaven, He united sensible
things with intelligible things, displaying in Himself the fact
that the convergence o f the entire creation toward unity
was absolutely indivisible and beyond all fracture, in accor
dance with its most primal and most universal principle.
And finally, after all o f these things, Heconsidered ac
cording to the idea of His humanitycomes to God Him
self, appearing as a man, as it is written, before theface o f God
[1309D} the Father on our behalfHe who as Word can never
in anyway be separated from the Fatherfulfilling as man,
in deed and truth, and with perfect obedience, all that He
Himself as God had preordained should take place, hating
completed the whole plan o f God the Father for us, who
through our misuse had rendered ineffective the power that
was given to us from the beginning by nature for this pur-
6
,
,
,

{Gen 1:26-27],

,
, ,

, , ,
,
{Eph 1:10],
,
,

,
,
,
,
.
, ,
,
, ,
AM BIGU U M
41
pose. Thus He united, first o f all, ourselves in Himself

through removal of the difference between male and female,
and instead o f men and women, in whom this mode of divi
sion is especially {1312A] evident, He showed us as properly
and truly to be simply human beings, thoroughly formed ac
cording to Him, bearing His image intact and completely
unadulterated, touched in no way by any marks of corrup
tion. And with us and for us He encompassed the extremes
o f the whole creation through the means, as His own parts,
and He joined them around Himself, each with the other,
tightly and indissolubly: paradise and the inhabited world,
heaven and earth, the sensible and the intelligible, since like
us He possesses a body, sense perception, soul, and intellect,
to which (as His own parts) He associated individually the
extreme that was thoroughly akin to each one of them (i.e.,
His parts), according to the mode described above, and He
recapitulated in Himself, in a manner appropriate to God, all
things, showing that the whole creation is one, as if it were
another human being, completed by the mutual coming to
gether of all its members, inclining {1312B} toward itself
in the wholeness o f its existence, according to one, unique,
simple, undefined, and unchangeable idea: that it comes
from nothing. Accordingly, all creation admits of one and
the same, absolutely undifferentiated principle: that its ex
istence is preceded by nonexistence.
For according to the true doctrine, all beings after God, 10
which possess their being from God by virtue o f having
been created by Him, coincide with all the others (even if
not in absolutely all respects)and in general no being, in
cluding those from among the greatly honored and tran
scendent, is completely free by nature from the condition of
115
AM BIGU A TO JO H N
,
"

.

,
,

.

.
, , .
,8 .

. ,
, ,

.
,
.
,
,
)
AM BIGU U M
41
general relation to what is Itself totally unconditioned, nor

is the most ignoble among beings completely {1312C] desti
tute or devoid o f a natural share in the general relationship
to the most honored beings. For all things that are distin
guished from each other by virtue o f their individual differ
ences are generically united by universal and common iden
tities, and they are drawn together to one and the same by
means of a certain generic principle of nature, like genera
that are united with each other according to substance, and
consequently have something one and the same and indivis
ible. For nothing that is universal, or which contains some
thing else, or which is a genus, can be divided in any way by
what is particular, contained, and individual. For that which
does not draw together things that are naturally separated is
no longer able to be generic, but rather divided up together
with them and so departs from its own individual unity. For
every generic item, according to its own proper principle,
exists as a whole indivisibly and really in the whole o f those
things subordinate to it, {1312D} and with respect to the par
ticular it is viewed as a whole in general. Species, according
to their genus, being released from variations grounded in
difference, likewise admit o f identity with each other. Indi
viduals who share common features with each other accord
ing to their species become completely one and the same
with each other, since by virtue of their common origin and
nature they are indistinguishable and free of all difference.
Accidents, finally, also possess unity, on the level of the sub
ject, where they are in no way scattered.13
And the unerring witness to these things is the true theo
logian, the great and holy {1313A] Dionysios the Areopagite, who, in the chapter on the Perfect and the One in

,
, ,
, ,
,
. , ,

, , ,

,
[see Eph 1:18], ,

,
.

[ Cor 1:24, 30},
,

,
,
, ,
, [Col 1:20}.
118
A M BIGU U M
41
his treatise On the Divine Names, says the following: For

there is no multiplicity which does not in some way partici
pate in the One, but that which is many by its parts, is one in
the whole; and that which is many by its accidents, is one in
the subject; and that which is many in number or potentiali
ties, is one in species; and that which is many by the species,
is one by the genus; and that which is many by the proces
sions, is one in its source. And there is none among beings
that does not participate in some way in the One.14 And
simply to speak concisely, the principles of whatever is sepa
rated and particular are, as they say, contained by the prin
ciples of what is universal and generic, and the more generic
and more universal principles are held together by wisdom,
whereas the principles o f particulars, which are contained in
various ways by those o f the generic terms, are encompassed
by prudence, [1313B] according to which, having first been
simplified and divested o f the symbolic diversity they ac
quire in lower material things, are made one by wisdom,
having received the natural affinity that leads to identity
through the more generic principles. But the Wisdom and
Prudence of God the Father is the Lord Jesus Christ, who
through the power of wisdom sustains the universals o f be
ings, and through the prudence of understanding embraces
the parts from which they are completed, since He is by na
ture the Creator and Provider o f all things, and through
Himself draws into one those that are separated, dissolving
strife among beings, and binding together all things in peace
ful friendship and undivided concord, both in heaven and on
earth, as the divine apostle says. [1313C]
41a.
2
,

,

,
[Hbr 4:15],
,
.

0 ,

.
, ,

,
, ,
.
, ,
, .

,

.
120
AM BIGUUM
41
41a. Another contemplation of this same difficulty

Again, the natures are innovated, since the Divine, in 12
its goodness and measureless love of mankind, accepted in a
manner beyond nature, and according to its own free wall,
our fleshly birth, while our nature paradoxically and by a
strange ordinance contrary to nature produced flesh, en
dowed with a rational soul, without seed, for the sake o f
God, who became flesh, and this flesh was in every way the
same and indistinguishable from ours, but without sinand
what is more paradoxical, His birth did not diminish in any
way the virginity o f the one who became His mother.15
Strictly speaking, the innovation is not only the fact that
God the Word, who was already timelessly and ineffably be
gotten o f God the Father, was born in time according to the
flesh, but also that our nature gave flesh without seed, and
that a virgin gave birth without {1313D} corruption. For each
o f these clearly manifests the innovation, while at the same
time on the one hand concealing and on the other hand re
vealing the ineffable and unknown principle according to
which they took place; concealing in accordance with the
mode that is beyond nature and knowledge, and revealing
by the principle o f faith, by which all things beyond nature
and knowledge may readily be grasped. [1316A]
In this way, then, as it seems to me, the difficulty is re- 13
solved as best it can beI, in any case, do not know how
one might otherwise explain it. It is now for your philosoph
ical mind either to approve of what has been said, or to dis
cover on your own and give expression to a better and wiser
solution, and to communicate to me the fruit o f heavenly
knowledge free o f all earthly elements.
121
AM BIGU A TO JO H N
Ambiguum 42
fJL
, ,1

, , .
, ,

,
[see Gen 2:7; Wis 15:11} ,
, , , [see 1
Cor 15:20-23},
[see Rom 8:29},
[Col 1:18; Ape 1:5} .
2

; , ,
, , ,
,
,
[see Gen 2:7}.

122
AM BIG UUM
42
Ambiguum 42
rom Saint Gregorys oration On Baptism:

Scripture acknowledges three births for us: from bod
ies, from baptism, and from the resurrection.
A fter having added a few more remarks to these, {1316B}

and having explained the three births, he says:
MvJ Christ has clearly
honored all these births in HimJ
self: the first by the original and vital inbreathing; the
second by His Incarnation and the baptism with
which He was baptized; and the third by the resurrec
tion, to which He led the way insofar as He became
the firstborn among many brethren, and deigned to be
come thefirstbornfrom the dead}
How is it that, in this latter passage, the godly-minded 2
teacher appears to have made a rather striking addition to
what he had previously stated? For having spoken o f three
birthsfrom bodies, from baptism, and from the resurrec
tionhe subsequently adds a fourth, as if it had escaped his
attention, and, in what appears to be a superfluous [1316C}
remark, he speaks of the birth by the original and vital in
breathing. He did not mention this with the three births,
123
,
{see Gen 2:7; Wis 15:11].
3
,
,
'
.
,
,
,
.

, ,

[Phlp 2:7}
{Wis 15:11;
see Gen 2:7], {Gen 1:26]
2
-

8 {Phlp 2:7] ,
{Hbr 2:14} {Hbr 4:15}
, .
<> 3 ,
8,
8 {see 1 Cor 15:45}
124
AM BIGUUM
42
but afterward he spoke o f it as i f he had, by saying: the first

by the original and vital inbreathing.
How in truth the teacher said this will be perfectly obvious to a person who is more or less his equal in virtue, and
who is not far removed from his wise science of divine reali
ties.2To the extent that I myself am able to understand this,
hindered as I am by the weakness of my feeble mind, I do
not think that the additional fourth birth is unwarranted or
superfluous, but rather complements the aforementioned
bodily birth and explains its attendant divine principles and
modes. For He who deigned to become man because of the
creation o f the first Adam, {1316D} and who did not disdain
to be bom because o f Adams transgression, conspicuously
displayed, by accepting creaturely origin, His gracious con
descension to the fallen one, and, by accepting to undergo a
human birth, He manifested His voluntary self-emptying to
the one who stood condemned.3 By accepting, on the one
hand, creaturely origin, He was naturally identified with
man through the vital inspiration, through which, in assum
ing the uncompromised and blameless image of God, He re
mained as man possessing the freedom of sinlessness. By ac
cepting, on the other hand, birth in the flesh, that is, by
voluntarily clothing Himself in the form o f the slave, so as to
assume the likeness o f corrupted humanity, the sinless one,
as if He were responsible for sin, willingly subjected Him
self to natural passions like ours, but without sin. For He was
compounded according to and from out o f both o f these
conditions4 of ours, and became {1317A} completely a new
Adam, bearing within Himself the first Adam, undiminished
in both conditions.
125

,
.
,
,
.
, Si
,

,
.
,
, , ,
, ,
, ,

,
,
,
,

, ,
,
120
AM BIGU U M
42
For in deference to the law of condescension, He embraced creaturely origin just as it was before the transgres
sion o f Adam, and in being formed as man He naturally
assumed, through the inbreathing, the condition o f sinless
nessbut He did not assume incorruptibility On the other
hand, when in His voluntary self-emptying He experienced
the form o f birth that emerged subsequent to the divine
condemnation o f the transgression, He naturally assumed
human passibilitybut not the proclivity to sin.s And thus
he became a new Adam, assuming the same sinless crea
turely origin and submitting Himself to the same passible
birth. In thoroughly and mutually combining these two con
ditions in relation to Himself, He powerfully remedied their
deficiencies by their extremes. In other words, He made the
second and ignoble birth the salvation and renewal of the
first one, {1317B] and at the same time He made the first
birth constitutive and preservative o f the second one. By
extremes I mean, in the case of the primal and noble cre
ation, incorruptibility, which is the first principle o f sinless
ness; and in the case of the secondary and ignoble birth, the
proclivity to sin, which is the cause o f all passion and cor
ruption. In becoming flesh, the Savior did not in anyway as
sume sinful passion or corruption into Himself, but He ac
cepted their consequences, and so made birth the salvation
of creaturely origin, and paradoxically renewed the incor
ruptibility of creation by means of the passibility made pos
sible by His birth. At the same time He made creaturely ori
gin preservative o f birth, sanctifying the passibility o f birth
by the sinlessness o f creation, so that He might completely
restore the integrity of creaturely origin, which holds nature
together {1317C] by its divinely perfect inner principle, but
127

,
.
, ,

,
. 4

, '
.
5
,
,
6 ,
,

,
,
,

,
,
128
AM BIGUUM
42
also so that He might completely free that same nature from

the birth to which it had become subject through sin, so
that it might no longer be dominated by the same mode
of procreation infused by seed common to the other ani
mals o f the earth. Now, if you naturally connect creaturely
origin, the making of the body, and the inbreathing with the
Words Incarnation and His birth, and separate them only
in thought, you will find that, in accord with the great
teacher, the fourth birth complements the birth that takes
place through bodies, and that it can be distinguished from
it only in thought, in the manner explained above. My point
is that bodily birth, which was introduced later, is identical
with the creaturely origin that is naturally conceived as pre
ceding it, the characteristic of which is the original and life
givinginbreathing. {1317D]
Another contemplation o f Scripture
knows three births for us
In sum, if you wish to know the precision with which the 5
teacher speaks, you must seek to understand what is the
causal principle that preceded the creation o f man, which
always remains inseparably within its own proper state o f
permanence, and what is the mode o f His birth as a correc
tive dispensation directed to human sin, a mode which aims
to reform the one corrected and restore him completely to
the principle o f his creation. By understanding these things,
you will see clearly how God, in becoming man, became per
fect in both, [1320A} wisely restoring the mode o f dispen
sation to the true principle of creation, and then you will
rightly admire the teacher for his wisdom, seeing how he
129
AM BIGUA TO JO H N
, '
.

,

.7
, ,

, ,
,
,

.
6
, ,
,
,
;
,
,
, ,

AM BIGUUM
42
subtly articulated the whole of the supremely divine mys

tery which pertains to us by separating in thought things
that are united by nature. For by conceptually distinguish
ing bodily birth from the vital inbreathing and the Incarna
tion, he alluded to the difference between the principle o f
mans creation and the mode of his birth, with a view to set
forth an unconfused and distinct explanation of these reali
ties. In assuming both o f these for our sake, God renewed
our nature, or to put it more accurately, He made our nature
new, returning it to its primordial beauty of incorruptibility
through His holy flesh, taken from us, and animated by a ra
tional soul, and on which He lavishly bestowed the gift o f
divinization, from which [1320B} it is absolutely impossible
to fall, being united to God made flesh, like the soul united
to the body, wholly interpenetrating it in an unconfused
union, and by virtue of His manifestation in the flesh, He
accepted to be hidden exactly to the same degree that He
Himself, for the sake o f the flesh, was manifested and to all
appearances seemed to go outside o f His own natural hid
denness.
And what greater paradox could there be than that, 6
whereas He is God by nature and deemed it fitting to be
come man by nature, He did not alter the natural definitions
of either one of the natures by the other, but being wholly
God He became and remained wholly man? For being God
did not hinder Him from becoming man, nor did becoming
man diminish His being God, and thus He remained wholly
one and the same in both, truly existing naturally in both,
being neither {1320C} divided by the unadulterated integ
rity o f the essential differences o f the two natures, nor con
fused by the fact that the two natures came to exist in an
131
, , 8
.
,
, ,

,
.

,
,
,
,

. ,

,
',
, , ,
, ,
,

, ,
, , ,
132
AM BIGUUM
42
absolutely single and unique hypostasis, and so He neither

changed nature nor underwent a transformation into some
thing He was not. Neither did He fulfill the plan of salvation
in an imaginary form or simulated appearance of the flesh
(as if He had simply appropriated the accidents of a sub
strate without the actual substrate itself), but to the con
trary He made human nature His very ownliterally, re
ally, and trulyuniting it to Himself according to hypostasis
without change, alteration, diminishment, or division, and
maintaining it unaltered in accordance with its essential
principle and definition. It was with this human natureac
cording to that great and holy teacherthat He honored
our bodily birth, and by truly becoming [1320D} man and
being born like a man, He freed us from the bonds of birth
and the law of reproduction whereby, because of the con
demnation that came about because o f sin, we multiply like
grass from seed, and come into being in a manner directly
akin to that of plants and irrational animals. This is wrhat the
great Ezekiel, that seer of magnificent visions, says some
where, addressing himself to Jerusalem, having been initi
ated into divine realities and learning the reason behind the
order o f salvation that has now' been made available to man
kind: Thus says the Lord toJerusalem: Your root and your birth
are of the land o f Canaan. Yourfather was an Amorite [1321A}
andyour mother a Hittite. On the day wherein you were bom they
did not bind your umbilical cord\ and you were not washed in
water; nor were you salted with salt nor swaddled in swaddling
clothes, butyou were cast out upon theface o f thefield because ofthe
deformity of your soul, in the day wherein you were bom. And
when Ipassed by you and saw thatyou were defiled with your own
blood, I said to you: From your blood is your life, and so multiply,
133
88 [ 16:3-7], ,
, 88 .9
7

,

,
,
(
), , ,

,
, - ,
,
,

.

, , ,
34
AMB I GUUM 42
for I have granted you to be lik e the rising o f thefield, or, as Symmachus says, as I have g ra n ted you to be like the sprouting o f the
field*
It was thus from b e in g condemned to reproduction
through seed like grass sp ru n g from the field, and from ob
taining our life through b lo o d like the other animals, that
the Lordwho heals h u m a n nature and returns it to its pri
mordial grace o f incorruptibilitycame to liberate nature.
His purpose was to reveal th e beauty toward which human
nature failed to move w h e n it was first created, and to tram
ple down the [1321B} w ickedness to which it, being deceived,
unnaturally moved at the v e r y moment it was created, and
which emptied it of a ll its power; and to bind the power of
human desire to H im self o f which the umbilical cord is the
symbolgranting it a condition o f fecundity which is fixed
and unalterable in the G o o d ; and to wash it in water, I mean
to cleanse it from the stains o f ignorance in the ocean of
knowledge poured out on it by grace; and to salt it with salt,
and wrap it in swaddling clothes, that is, to fortify, by means
of the Spirit, its natural energy in relation to the beauty for
which it was created, and to purge it of the putrefaction
of passions and make it resistant to them, and, by binding
it tightly in the true principles of beings as if they were
swaddling clothes, to make it completely incapable o f being
squandered and wasted.
Another contemplation o f the same phrase

Perhaps through these words the teacher, in proposing 8
that the principle and mode o f origination o f human nature
is twofold [1321C} (that o f the soul and that of the body),
135

,
,

.

,
. 2
,
.

, ,
, 10
.

9
,
, ,
, ,
,
,
,

,11

136
A M BIGU U M
42
divided bodily birth into two, emphasizing both the ineffa

ble constitution of the soul from the divine and vital in
breathing, and the formation of the body from the underlying
matter of which it is composed at the moment of concep
tion together with the soul. For it is not valid to speak indistinguishably o f the same principle and mode of origination
with respect to both the soul and the body, since the two
are not identical in essence. Indeed, of things among which
there is no identity of being, it is obvious that their princi
ple and mode o f origination will differ. But with respect to
the soul, it is correct to think that the principle and mode
whereby it was created, exists, and remains in existence is
one thing, whereas the principle and mode of the body,
{1321D] whereby it was created, exists, and immutably re
mains a body, though conjoined to the soul, is another.
[Digression 1.} A concise argument against those who

say that souls exist either before or after bodies7
And if the time of their coming into being is one and the 9
same for bothI mean the soul and the bodywith neither
o f them, as I have said,8existing before or coming into exis
tence after the other, so that the [1324A] form as a whole
which they jointly constitute not be dissolved, then quite
rightly the principle of reciprocal relation9 holds that when
an individual subsistence functioning as a part is prior to the
existence of the whole, and its union with another part is
completely unconditioned in nature, then no <composite>
subsistence is completed by the natural synthesis o f one
part with another without the destruction and alteration of
137
.

.
,
. ,
,
,
, ,
, .

,
, ,
.
;
.
, 12
, ,
,
,
.

,
,
138
AM BIGU U M
42
one of these parts into something that it was not. For that
which already subsists as an individual entity by its nature
cannot be imparted to the subsistence o f another form. If,
however, an already subsisting entity admits of synthesis
with something else for the completion o f a different form,
it can only accomplish this either according to nature or
contrary to nature. If it does this according to nature, it fol
lows that it will never cease from synthesizing itself with
other elements to complete another form, owing to the
force of nature {1324B] that prevents it from moving outside
its own laws, which is why it is inconceivable to think of ei
ther the soul without the body or the body without the soul.
(Thus, the clever conceit of those possessing only a super
ficial understanding of these matters is shown to be utter
folly, dragging them by logical necessity to the very conclu
sion they were so anxious to avoid.) If, on the other hand,
contrary to nature, one of the two should admit o f synthesis
with the other for the completion of another form, it will
certainly suffer destruction, transgressing the boundaries of
its own nature, becoming something that it was not created
to be, and changing into something that it was not, and what
could possibly be more absurd than this? But let us return to
the subject at hand. {1324C]
As the teacher expressly states, the soul does not origi- to
nate from underlying matter, as bodies do, but by the will of
God, through the vital inbreathing in a manner which is inef
fable and hidden, known only to the souls Creator.10 Receiv
ing its existence at the moment of conception simultane
ously w'ith the body, the soul contributes to the completion
of a single human being, whereas the body is created from
the underlying matter o f another body at the moment of
139

.
,
.

,
, .
,
,
,
,

,
.
,
,
;
.
, ,
, ,
,
{G en 1:27, 2:7] ,
,
14 0
AM BIGUUM
42
conception, and is synthesized together with the soul into a

single form with it. The teacher makes this point even more
clearly elsewhere when he says, in accordance with the
twofold power o f the inbreathing, we are all infused both
with breath and the Holy Spirit.11 Thus in the moment of
conception we must distinguish in thought two things: first,
the vital inbreathing and [1324D] the Holy Spirit in relation
to the intellectual substance of the soul, and second, the for
mation of flesh and breath in relation to the nature o f the
body, just as the fathers say.12To be sure, the creation o f our
forefather Adam took place in a hidden, secret manner, and
his soul had both a different principle of being and a dif
ferent mode o f generation, while his body obviously was
formed on the basis of a different principle and mode, just
as the Divine Scripture has so sublimely taught us, allowing
us no room to lump together according to nature the cre
ation of the soul and the body according to one and the
same mode o f origin, losing sight o f each ones distinctive
principle o f being and mode of origin.13 [1325A]
And if in the case of Adam the concurrence of the two
fold power o f the inbreathing accompanied the moment of
his coming into being, what should one say about the pres
ence of bothI mean of soul and bodyin the humanity of
our God and Savior Jesus Christ, a blending that preserves
as much resemblance as is possible to the first Adam? For
just as the teacher himself says, God took the elements of
the body from matter, which had itself only recently been
created and given form, and imbued it with life from Him
self (which according to Scripture is the rational soul and the
image of God), and so He creates man.14 In the same way,
God took a body from a pure virgin, as if from undefiled
,
,
(Gen 1:27, 2:7}, ,

, ,
, .
2
, ,

,
' ,
,
,
, ,
, ,
, , ,
.

.
,
, , ,
,

, ,
.
142
A M B I G U U M 42
earth, and imbued it with life from Himself (which accord

ing to Scripture is the rational soul and image o f God), and so
He created His own humanity, or in assuming flesh [1325B]
(ensouled with reason and intellect), He willingly for our
sake, and by virtue of His limitless power, fashioned Him
self into m an without undergoing change.
I
think that in this way, as the teacher says, our Lord and 12
God has honored our three births, that is, the three general
modes o f our origin in being, in well-being, and in eternal
being.15 The first o f these is our birth from another body,
which constitutes the single birth of bothI mean of soul
and bodyowing to their simultaneous and mutual coexis
tence, and yet they may be distinguished as two because of
the different mode of origin characteristic of each. It is
through this first birth that we receive being. The second
birth, which is from baptism, is how we lavishly receive well
being, while the third birth, from resurrection, is how
{1325C} we are transformed by grace unto eternal well-being.
We must, then, scrutinize the teachers words with the ut
most precision in order to respond to those who insolently
defame what he has so admirably set forth. For by distin
guishing (solely in thought) bodily birth for the reason I
have explained, the teacher establishes that it was not at
some moment after His conception, but in the very same
moment of His conception, without any suggestion what
soever o f an antecedent temporal interval, that the Lord
received the life-giving spiritthat is, the inbreathing ac
cording to His humanity, by which I mean a rational soul to
gether with the body that was taken from the pure Virgin.
143
, ,
, 13 8 ,
. '
( )
,
, ,14 ,
[D t 5:32,17:20], ,
[Ps 52(53);6},
,
,
, , ,
,
,
.

,
, , ,

, .
144
AM BIGUUM
42
{Digression 2.} To those who say that

souls preexist bodies16 [1325D}
For there are some who maintain, as I said a moment ago,
that souls preexist bodies, whereas others maintain the op
posite, namely, that bodies come into existence before souls.
We, however, adhering to the middle course (which accord
ing to our fathers is the royal way), speak neither of pre
existence nor postexistence of either soul or body, but o f
coexistence,17guarding ourselves against the two deviations
by inclining neither to the right nor the left, just as Holy Scrip
ture says,fearing greatly [1328A] that o f which no greater fear
exists, for in granting that souls exist before their bodies,
and that bodies were subsequently devised in order to pun
ish these souls on account of some evil they had committed
prior to their embodiment,18 we might reasonably assume
that the magnificent beauty o f the visible world, through
which God is proclaimed in silence, is purely the result o f
sin, to say nothing of imposing on God the necessity, con
trary to His own purpose, o f creating a being that He had no
wish to create, and which, unlike other beings, would have
seemingly lacked a principle hidden within Him before the
ages. For to say that the principles according to which cre
ated beings receive their substances are contained within
God contrary
to His own intention does not strike me as
J
the mark of a very keen intelligence, or of a mind that is
highly conscious o f the sublime majesty o f God, who is not
subject to change and who alone is true, {1328B} and who in
no way contains any recent acquisitions among the princi
ples o f beings that preexist within Him, and certainly not
any that are contrary to His own purposes. For all things
145
13
15

.
,
'
. .
,
,
' ,
,
,
.
, , .

.

, ,
, [Hbr 7:10],
146
AM BIGUUM
42
that have come to exist substantially in any way whatever, or

that will come into existence, have all been willed in advance
by God, and have been conceived o f in advance and fore
known by Him, and to each particular being H e gives sub
stance and subsistence at the fitting and appropriate time.19
Therefore when we behold God fashioning something, 14
we should not think that it was only then that H e began to
will it, or conceive of it, or know it. Such a notion is to be
dismissed, since it is replete with absurdities, and will in
volve us in thinking that what God from the beginning, be
fore the ages, had failed to conceive, or know, or will, He
only now concerned of, and willed, and came to know. Or, to
put it in more common terms, it would be as i f God had
changed His mind and created something because He re
cently decided that it was goodand I say this in order to
avoid saying that it would be that God does not even know
how to create beings, the principles of which He did not
previously possess. [1328C] We, however, believe that God
eternally contains and foreknows all things in His will, con
sistent with His infinite power, and that there is nothing at
all, in any manner whatsoever, that was conceived of by Him
at a later stage and then received being and substance. I am
of the opinion that those o f pious mind should not think
that God knows particular things, the principles of which
are eternally contained in His foreknowledge and infinite
power, only when they are created and brought into being.
For time and the ages show us each thing wisely being cre
ated at the proper, predetermined moment, at which point
it is brought into being, just as the divine apostle says con
cerning Levi, namely, that he was still in the loins o f his ances
tor before he came into being. [1328D] When the perfect
,
,
,
'
'
.

, , ,
,
,

,
,
, , ,
, , , ,

,

,16 ,
,
.

,
, .
14 8
A M BIGU U M
42
time arrived, the one who existed potentially in the patri

arch Abraham was brought into actual being through con
ception, and thus in order and sequence, according to the
ineffable wisdom o f God, we have been led to understand
and believe that all things are brought into being at a time
that has been foreknown.20 {1329A}
The principles o f all the beings that exist essentially 15
whether they exist now or will exist in the future, whether
they have come to be or will come to be, or have appeared or
will appearpreexist and are immovably fixed in God, and
it is according to these that all things are, and have come to
be, and remain always drawing closer to their own prede
termined principles through natural motion, and ever more
closely approximated to being by their particular kinds and
degrees o f motion and inclination of choice. They receive
well-being through virtue and through their direct progress
toward the principle according to which they exist; or they
receive ill-being through vice and their movement contrary
to the principle by which they exist. To put it concisely, they
move in accordance with their possession or privation of
the potential they have naturally to participate in Him who
is by nature absolutely imparticipable, and who offers Him
self wholly and simply to allworthy and unworthyby
[1329B] grace through His infinite goodness, and who en
dows each with the permanence of eternal being, corre
sponding to the way that each disposes himself and is. And
for those who participate or do not participate proportion
ately in Him who, in the truest sense, is and is good, and is
forever, there is an intensification and increase o f punish
ment for those who cannot participate, and of enjoyment
for those who can participate. For there exists absolutely
14 9
,
.
,
.
,
.

,
,
, ,
.
, '

( ,
),
.
"
,
,
,
17

,
.
AM B I G U I M 4 2
none among beings whose principle did not previously exist

in God, and the principles of the substance o f these beings
likewise preexist in God, from which it follows that their
creation in time unquestionably takes place according to
the divine purpose. Now every essential existence created
according to the divine purpose remains in being and can
not pass into nonbeing. But if whatever essentially exists
cannot pass from being to nonbeing once it has been
brought into existence, [1329c] then its principles must be
solid and unchanging, having the sole origin of their be
ing in divine Wisdom, from which they come and thanks to
which they remain in existence, and by which they have the
power to remain firmly anchored in being. But if the princi
ples of things exist permanently in God, then the purpose o f
God, who created all things, must be changeless concerning
themfor Gods purpose cannot be contained within the
boundaries of time, nor does it admit of change relative to
the changes that take place among the things that are sub
ject to itand thus the existences o f these principles are
clearly incorruptible.
For either God willingly and purposefully created human
bodies, and it is on account of Him that they do not pass
into nonbeing, since He wills perpetual existence for that
which He purposefully willed in accordance with His reason
and wisdom, [1329D] and it is on account of these21 that
there vail be no complete and utter reduction of bodies to
nonbeingor God did not create them according to His
purpose, but was constrained to do so against His will, being
led by necessity to create things whose principles He would
not seem to have originally possessed. And if God was ne
cessitated, contrary to His purpose, and thus moved against
,
.

.
,
,
, 18
. , , 19
;
,
;
. "
,
, ,
. .

,
.
7
152
AM B IGUUM
42
His will to create bodies, it is obvious that th eir creation

was not preceded by reason and wisdom, for whatever
comes into being contrary to the divine purpose is com
pletely devoid o f and alien to reason and w isdom . {1332A}
But only evil is absolutely devoid o f reason and w isdom , the
being of which is characterized by nonexistence, and we
must never think that the creator of nonexistence is God,
nor even utter such a thing in the hearing o f others, nor be
reckless enough to believe in such a harmful and destructive
doctrine. And if indeed God was so forcedif it is even per
mitted to say that contrary to His purpose G o d created
something that He did not wish to createwho was it that
forced Him to do so? And how is it that God, being so forced
by necessity, was led, contrary to His will, to call into being
things marked for ultimate destruction? Let those who traf
fic in these opinions answer these questions, if they dare.
For either they will say that God did indeed do these things
and so utter the greatest blasphemy, imposing on God the
necessity to create bodies contrary to His purpose, or they
will say that God did not create bodies at all, in which case
they will be exposed as necessarily introducing another
principle behind the creation o f bodies, in the manner o f
the Manichaeans.22 {1332B} Clearly, the doctrine o f preexis
tence shares the same characteristic as those who posit two
cosmic principles and then pit them against each other in
battle. "Yet by the grace o f the all-merciful God, those men
have been covered by the gloomy darkness o f obscurity, and
have been consigned to utter oblivion, for they were unable
to bear the splendor o f the truth as proclaimed by our holy
fathers.
I find it rather astonishingto set aside for now' all the 17
153
AM BIGU A TO JO H N
, ,
,

. ,
,
,

,
,

, ,
{Eph 1:21},
, [Hbr 4:14}? {Eph 4:10},

,
,
,

, , ,
,
,
AM BIGU U M
42
other things that could possibly be said, so as to keep my re

marks within certain limitsbut it is astonishing, I say, that
the mystery o f Christ our true God [1332C} does not per
suade these men to promptly disabuse themselves o f such
an opinion. For all the divine mysteries are surpassed by the
mystery of Christ, and this mystery is definitive o f every
conceivable perfection in all things either present or to
come, and it exists above and beyond every limit and bound
ary. Now this mystery teaches us that the body o f God the
Wordwhich was taken from us and which is consubstantial with us, and which was united to Him in a union accord
ing to hypostasis when He assumed flesh and perfectly be
came manis the same body with which He ascended into
the heavens, above a ll rule and authority andpower and do
minion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age
but also in that which is to come, {1332D] so that now and for
infinite ages He is seated together with God the Father, hav
ing passed through all the heavens and surpassing all things, and
He shall come again to refashion and transform the uni
verse, and for the salvation of our souls and bodies, just as
we have believed and believe and will continue to believe
forever. These things being so, who would be so obstinate
and reckless (as if he knew aught but to rush impetuously
into battle against things that are perfectly clear and obvi
ous) to entertain even the merest thought that {1333A] bod
ies will pass into nonbeing after rational beings will have
completed their progress to perfectionfor this is precisely
what they argue23but how, I wonder, could anyone think
such a thing, believing at the same time that our Lord Him
self, the God o f all, is now and will be forever embodied, for
155

, , ,
, {Hbr 2:10; see
Act 5:31], ,
,
,
;
8
,

,
,

, ' ,
. ,

,
,
,
.
. ;
.
{Hbr 2:10],
,

156
A M BIGU U M
42
it is He who grants to others the power enabling them to

make progress, and it is He who leads and calls everyone to
His own glory (as much as this is possible for them) by the
power of His Incarnation, inasmuch as He is the pioneer o f
the salvation o f all, totally cleansing them from their defile
ment? But it is not the caseeven if they should dare to
think such a thingthat the tokens of His perfection lead
to the casting aside of the body.
For He does not follow others to perfection, neither 18
should it be thought that He has arrived at perfection
through progress, for He alone by nature is absolutely per
fect and the creator of every perfection, and He does not
[1333B} wait to receive perfection together with others, for
unlike the totality of beings He has no need o f making any
progress in anything, so that He should need to discard the
nature of the body at the moment when, as they say the
consummation o f progress among rational beings will signal
the setting aside of their bodies. For if this is so, He is not
the pioneer and savior o f those who are being saved, since
He did not show us in Himself, definitively and mystically,
the goal of our perfection, but to the contrary He will ap
pear to be simply one among many that are saved, and are
ruled, and who require someone else to show them the
meaning of perfection, to which hasten all those naturally
endowed with reason.
But this is not how it iswhat nonsense!neither does 19
the word of truth endure those who espouse such doctrines.
For the divine apostle says that Christ {1333C] is the pioneer
andperfecter o f our salvation, for He has assumed flesh for us
in order to destroy our sin in Himself, and to give Himself to
all those who believe in Him as the prototype and pattern
157
, ,
' , ,
,
,
, ,

,
, ,
. [see
Hbr 2:} .
,
,
,
.
2
, ,
,
; , , , .
.
. ,
,
, ,
, ,
,
ij8
AM BIGU U M
42
of a virtuous life, that is, like a good and wise teacher, first
showing us by His own example what we should say and do,
dying and rising and ascending to heaven and sitting with
the body at the right hand of God the Father, so that we too
should have the sure hope that we shall rise after death and
live a life completely separate from every form o f death and
all corruption, and that we shall ascend to heaven, where
we will receive the honor and the glory o f God the Father
through the mediation o f His Son, and shall abide with Him
in eternal and blessed life. [1333D} But we do not expect any
kind o f putting o ff of the body, for the word of Holy Scrip
ture does not teach us such a thing, neither do we see such a
precedent for this in the pioneer o f our salvation. If He would
have been pleased for such a thing to have come about, He
Himself would have done this first, along with everything
else to which He submitted Himself for us, as the lover o f
mankind, and which He completed to perfection in relation
to us, so that wre might believe in this just as we do the other
things.
Moreover, if we allow them {1336A] to say such things, 20
how will we be able to believe the holy teacher that what has
been united to God is saved? For he says in his letter to Kledonios: Whatever has been united to God is saved.24 For
the body was united to the Word of God together with the
soul, and so the body is saved together with the soul. Again,
if this is why the Word of God became flesh, according to
the godly-minded teacher, namely, to save the image and
grant immortality to the flesh,25 how can what was saved be
lost, or how can what was made immortal, die? Or to speak
more precisely, not what was made immortal, but what was
,
,

,
, . ,

,

,

, .

. .
, ,
,
,
.

,
.

.

AM BIGUUM 4 2
wholly divinized by virtue of the rational soul mediating

between divinity,26 and the body, which ineffably and essen
tially received the whole hypostasis o f God the Word who
became flesh, who made and proclaimed that body His very
ownindeed, {1336B} I know not how, in light of this, we
will be able to believe the words of the teacher. And why ex
actly this doctrine, if it falls within the mystery of the faith
of the Church, was not included with the other articles in
the Creed expressing the spotless faith of Christians (which
was established by our holy and blessed fathers, who at dif
ferent times convened in order to affirm the sacred doc
trines o f the Holy and Apostolic Church of God), is a ques
tion that we will leave for those sages to explain. But I think
that, for the time being, what has been said here by way o f a
digression suffices as a response to them. Let us now turn to
the others. {1336C}
[Digression 3.} To those who say
that bodies preexist souls27
That souls come into existence after bodiesmy good 21
sirsis easy enough for someone to say, but to support this
with logical arguments is extremely difficult and demand
ing, and the diligence required for such a proof is no light
matter. For if, as you say, what is sown in the initial phase o f
human reproduction is completely devoid o f soul, then it is
quite obvious that it is also devoid o f the power to give life,
since that which is completely devoid o f any kind o f soul is
also bereft o f all vital activity. But that which is devoid o f
soul, and which is completely devoid o f every vital power
161
\>,
, , ,
.
.
,
, ,
,

, ,

, .
,

, ,
;
,

.
,
.
22
, ,

,
102
AM BIGU U M
42
and activity, is clearly dead. And if we grant that it is dead, it

can neither be nourished nor grow, {1336D] nor will it be
able in any way to stand on its own, and it will remain com
pletely inert and unmoving. This is proven by the method
used to heal those parts o f the body that have been wounded.
For should physicians, in treating such wounds, find any ar
eas that have suffered necrosis, they remove them by means
of drugs that consume dead tissue, after which they apply
what is necessary for the regeneration and restoration o f the
wounded area, since the living [1337A] body possesses a na
ture capable o f regenerating itself, along with the capacity
to restore and stabilize its proper state, whereas a dead body
is incapable o f doing any such thing, for once it is dead it
completely loses its ratal powder, and for this reason is devoid
of activity. How then can the body, which by nature easily
dissipates and dissolves, stand on its own if it lacks the foun
dation, as it were, of a logically prior underlying life-giving
power, which will naturally unite and hold its dissipative na
ture together, and from which it acquires its being and form,
thanks to that power that has wisely fashioned all things by
its art? For by virtue of whatever thing truly remains with
the body after birth, one could rightly say that in that same
thing there unquestionably resides the beginning o f the
bodys existence. And with respect to any kind of {1337B]
body that by nature is dissolved upon its separation from
this element, it is obvious that this very same thing coex
isted with that body when it first came into being.
Now if, my dear sirs, you feel yourselves at a loss in the
face o f these arguments, and consequently should assert that
what is sown in the initial phase o f human reproduction is
163
22
,

. 20
,

, ,
,
.

, ,
, .
,
.
, , %
.
^3

,
,
, ,
, , .
164
AM BIGU U M
42
not absolutely dead, but in some way has a share o f vital

power, so that it has a soul by virtue of this sharing, for with
out a soul there could never exist, not even once, any form
o f life found within nature or under the perpetually revolv
ing vault of heaven. And if without exception there is no
form of life without a soul, as logic dictates,28 then what
ever form o f life you should choose to assign to that which
is sown during conception, you will invariably be speaking
only of a property o f the soul, [1337C] which constitutes the
substance of that in which it is found, and which also marks
it off as being different from what is not like it. And if, being
forced by the power o f the truth to accept what is only right,
you should say that the embryo has a soul, then what kind of
soul this is, and how you understand it, and what you call
it, is something you need to explain. And if you were to as
sure us that the embryo has a soul which possesses merely
the faculty o f nutrition and growth, then on your terms the
body that receives nourishment and grows will obviously be
the body o f a kind o f plant and not, as it seems to me, that of
a human being. And how a man can become the father of a
plant is not something I am able to understand, no matter
how many different ways I think about it, since a plant does
not derive its being naturally from a man.
And if you should assign to the embryo a soul having only 23
the power of sensation, such an embryo, at the moment of
its conception, will turn out to have nothing more than the
soul of a horse, or a cow, [1337D} or some other land animal
or winged creature, and on your terms a man will not by na
ture be the father o f another man in the latters initial con
stitution, but rather o f a plant, as I have already said, or of
some terrestrial animal, and what could be more absurd or
16 5
; To

,
,
. ,

.

,
.
,

, ,
21 ,
,
,
.
24

,
,
, ,

,
,

. ,
66
A M B I G U U M 42
deranged than this? For to contend that the proper defini

tions o f beings, as these pertain to their very existence and
to their natural differences, are not all mutually present at
the initial formation o f beings, is toconfuse everything with
everything else, and to champion the view that, strictly
speaking, no being is what it is, or is what it is said to be.
And the greater evil is that {1340A] such a theory will be
found to contain the greatest slander against Gods wisdom
and power. For if all beings prior to their actual creation, in
Gods foreknowledge o f them, possess perfection in terms
of their proper principle, it is obvious that when they are
created and brought into being theywill not be lacking any
thing in relation to this same principle, but will possess per
fection by virtue o f their actuality And if beings possess per
fection by divine foreknowledge, but emerge as imperfect
when they enter existence by means of creation, then ei
ther they are not that which was foreknown, but something
other, or else the difference between the two constitutes a
clear weakness on the part o f the Creator, who was not able
to realize fully in creation what He had envisioned in His
foreknowledge, so that its nature might have more closely
approximated its essence. [1340B}
Amd i f these refutations raise doubts in your minds, and 24
cause you to take refuge in this final argument, saying that it
is not right that the image o f God and divine element (for
this is what you call the rational soul) should coexist with
sordid pleasure and bodily secretions, so that you think it
more seemly to introduce the soul into the body forty days
after conception, you will clearly be seen to be indicting the
Creator, and rightly be subject to the frightful danger pro
voked by such blasphemy. For if marriage is evil, then it is
167

,
, ,
. ,
, , , , ,
;
,
,
,

(
, ) {see
Lv 12; Lk 2:22},

, , ,
.

,
,
[see E x 21:22},

6 8
AM BIGU U M
42
obvious that the natural law o f creation is also evil. And if

the natural law of creation is evil, it is equally obvious that
the One who created nature, and who gave it this law, should
justly fall under your indictment. But why, then, should we
reject the disciples o f Mani, and the heretics who preceded
him, [1340C} who for the same reason posited two princi
ples and so denied the God o f all, that is, for saying the very
same thing that you say, if not with the same words? And
if, for the reason stated a moment ago, you refuse, out of
shame and piety, to say that the rational and intellective soul
coexists with the body at the very moment of conception,
I suspect that you will not have the courage to grant such
coexistence, not simply after forty days, or even after nine
months o f pregnancy, nor indeed even after birth, but not a
moment before the rite of purification on the fortieth day
after birth,29when you will finally muster the courage to say
that what has been born has a rational and intellective soul
because a newborn may not enter the temple o f God,
since the law deems it to be unclean. Thus, until the days of
purification are completed, [1340D] logic compels us to in
fer that what has been bom does not possess a rational or
intellective soul, but ratheras I said a moment agothe
soul of a plant, or o f an irrational beast o f one kind or an
other found among animals. And if your basis for such a
view is what the great Moses has written, namely, that crimi
nal charges should not be brought against a man who strikes
a pregnant woman during her first forty days o f pregnancy if
the blow rendered causes her to miscarry the embryo, you
should know that the wise Moses, who was addressing the
matter that was immediately before him, was not saying
169
,
[ 2:22, 23],
.
,
,
,

[Hbr 405],

,
,
,

,
,
,

. ,
,

,
,
AM BIGU U M
42
that the rational soul enters the body on the fortieth day,
but that on the fortieth day the embryo attains its complete
formation.30 [ 34^
In addition to all these things, I am extremely apprehen
sive about admitting this particular argument, since the log
ical implications o f it might justly make me subject to dread
ful accusations, since it will lead me to utter what is not
lawful, being constrained by the sequence of the argument
to say that our Lord and God, who truly deigned to become
man like us but without sin, became, at the moment of His
conception, a human being without a soul or intellect, and
that He remained in this condition for forty days. Against
such a view our holy fathers and teachersor rather the
Truth speaking through themexplicitly proclaim that si
multaneously with the Word of Gods descent, at the very
moment of conception, without any intervening temporal
interval, through the medium o f the rational soul, the same
Lord and Word of God was united to the flesh. [i34iB]That
is, the Word did not assume a rational soul through the me
dium o f inanimate flesh, neither did He assume a body
utterly devoid of soul, nor a soul devoid o f intellect and rea
son, but He ineffably united to Himself, according to hypos
tasis, a perfect human nature lacking nothing, consisting of
a rational soul and body. And this is why, before everything
else, I espouse the doctrine o f coexistence, rejecting each of
the other views that are at variance both with each other
and with the middle position, to which I adhere, having for
my arguments advocate and unerring teacher the very same
Creator of nature, in the mystery of His embodiment, who
truly became man, and who confirmed in Himself that His
Si ,
,
,
,
, ,

.
'

, ,
,
, ,
, , ,
,

.
,

, ,
.
AM BIGUUM
42
human nature subsists in its full perfection simultaneously

with its coming into being at the moment o f its creation, so
that the only novel thing He introduced was {1341C} the in
novation o f nature, by which I mean His conception with
out seed and His birth without corruption, from which very
things nature was separated after the fall, having fallen away
from the divine and spiritual mode of increase into multi
plicitybut not from the inner principle o f its nature, ac
cording to which it naturally is and exists, subsisting from
the very moment it comes into being as a unity of rational
soul and body.
How innovation takes place even
as the things innovated remain
unchanged in their nature [1341D}
Ever)' innovation, generally speaking, takes place in relation to the mode of whatever is being innovated, not in rela
tion to its principle o f nature, because when a principle is
innovated it effectively results in the destruction o f nature,
since the nature in question no longer possesses inviolate
the principle according to which it exists. When, however,
the mode is innovatedso that the principle of nature is
preserved inviolateit manifests a wondrous power, for it
displays nature being acted on and acting outside the limits
o f its own laws. Now the principle of human nature is that it
consists o f soul and body, and this nature consists o f a ratio
nal soul and body, whereas its mode is the order whereby
it naturally acts and is acted upon, frequently alternating
and changing, without howrever in anyway changing nature
along with it. {1344A] And this is exactly what happens in
173
26
,
, , '
.
27

,
,
[Gen 5:24; 4 Kings 2:11],
,
,
,

[Gen 6:6-8:19},
, ,
[Gen 17:15-19,
18:9-15, 2:7},
[Gen 19:24},
,
[Ex 3:2},
, ,
[ .\-\}.
28
,
,
,
174
AM BIGU U M
42
the case o f every other thing, whenever G o d in H is provi

dence for all that is subject to H is care, and to demonstrate
His power that is over all and through all thingswishes to
manifest something new in His creation.
Indeed this is exactly what H e did from the very begin- 27
ning, when, in the course o f bringing about the unexpected,
he wrought magnificent signs and wonders, all by this prin
ciple o f innovation. Thus He translated the blessed Enoch
and Elijah from fife in corruptible flesh to another form o f
life, not by altering their human nature, but by an alteration
o f its condition and conduct. H e poured out much greater
quantities o f water31 in order to drown the wicked men on
earth, while He enabled Noah, the first navigator, to live un
harmed amid wild animals in the ark. He honored H is great
servants, [1344B] Abraham and Sarah, -with a child, despite
the fact that they were long past the age and ordinary limit
and time o f natural childbearing. He prepared fire to be
rained down on the earth and consume the impious, with
out in any way diminishing its natural principle. H e set
alight the burning bush with an unburning fire in order to
summon His servant. In Egypt, He transformed water into
the quality o f blood, without in any way suppressing its na
ture, since the w ater remained w'ater by nature even after it
turned red.
And God performed the rest o f the signs and wonders 28
there in order to give the faithful the hope o f freedom from
the terrible woes that beset them, and also to bring the
faithless to awareness o f His power to punish, so that they
might put away their hardness o f heart toward G od, which
175
A M B I G K A TO JO H N
,
, , ,
[Ex 4:~3 {
15:25],
[ 16:4-18},
[ 16:13; Nm 11:31-32].
,
,
, 22
[Ex 17:1-7].

ljos 3:15~7}>
,
,
|Jos 10:12-14],
,

.
29
, ,
, [seeJos 22:19],
, ,

. , ,
176
a m b i g u u m
42
held them in its grip. Thus He divided the {1344C} sea by

means o f the rod and kept the water from flowing together,
without it going outside its nature, creating a passage for
those who for His sake were being pursued, and thwarting
those who without cause persecute what is noble and free.
He sweetened the water with a piece o f wood, and from
heaven rained down untilled bread that was strange and un
known. From the sea He suddenly cast up an abundance of
edible birds, without the nature of one displacing the other,
for the consolation of those who were suffering hardships
in the desert. He showed forth the driest o f rocks to be a
mother of living water, without the rock being altered into
another nature on account o f the water, for the strengthen
ing of the faith o f those who were abandoning their strug
gles. He stopped the flow of the river so that the godly
people might pass dry-shod. He miraculously halted the un
impeded course o f the sun and the moon, arresting the per
petually moving nature o f the encircling sphere, [1344D]
in order to destroy impious tyranny which had ignorantly
ranged itself against God, so that, before the power of these
visible signs should cease, the people might take possession
of the assured inheritance that had previously been prom
ised to them.
And the same is true with all the rest o f the things that
God is said to have done in the land o f possession, and in the
other lands through which the ancient Israelites wandered
after they had transgressedthat is, when God innovated
the nature of the things that were innovated, He accom
plished this with respect to their mode of activity, not their
principle of existence. Together with and after all these mys
teries, He brought about the utterly and truly new mystery
177
29
AM BIGU A TO JO H N
, ,
, ,
, , '
,

.

, , ,
, ,

. , ,

.
, ,
,
.
, ,
, ,
.
,
AM BIGUUM
42
of His Incarnation for our sake (on account of which and

through which all other mysteries occur), and thus He inno
vated nature with respect to its mode, not to its principle,
{1345A] assuming flesh through the medium of a rational
soul, being ineffably conceived without seed, and being
truly born perfect man without corruption, possessing a ra
tional soul together with His body from the very moment of
His ineffable conception.
That every nature possesses its perfection
by virtue of its proper principle
This is because no nature, to speak generally, whether intelligible or sensiblethat is, whether simple or composite
ever receives in any way the origin of its coming into be
ing from one o f its parts, nor can it subsist with only half of
its constitutive elements. If the nature in question is com
posite, [1345B} the absolute totality' of it subsists together
with the absolute totality of the parts proper to it, there be
ing no temporal interval whatsoever dividing it either from
itself or from the parts of which it is composed. If, on the
other hand, the nature in question is simple, that is, intelli
gible, it subsists as an absolute totality simultaneously with
all of its perfect principles, without any deficiency, so that
no moment o f time divides it from its proper principles. For
in general there has never existed, nor is there now, nor will
there ever be, any nature among created beings, subsisting
according to its own principle, that is anything other than
what it is at present; and it is not now nor will ever be in the
future something it was not in the past. For consistent
with their principles, which from God possess perfection
179
30

\|/
, , .

,

.

3

(
),
, , .
, ,
, ,
{Gen 1:27],
{Gen 1:26}
,
,
.
,
,
. ,
AM BIGUUM
42
simultaneously with being, the production [1345C] and sub

stantiation o f created beings admits o f absolutely no in
crease or decrease in terms o f what they essentially are.
W hat has been said here by way of a digression should, I
think, be sufficient for the individuals in question, so that
they might not be so easily swept away into absurdities by
those who reduce the faith to contrived theories decked out
in refined language.
Why the teacher connected the birth through
baptism with the Incarnation
One question remains to be answered: to what end, and
for what reason, did the teacher connect the birth through
baptism with the Incarnation? [1345D} As I have been
taught, I shall speak briefly and to the extent that I am able.
Those who interpret the divine sayings mystically, and who
honor them, as is right, with more lofty contemplations, say
that man in the beginning was created according to the image
o f God, surely so that he might be born o f the Spirit in the
exercise o f his own free choice, and to acquire in addition
the likeness by the keeping of the divine commandment, so
that the same man, being by nature a creation of God, might
also be the son of God and God through the Spirit by grace.
For there was no other way for man, being created, to be
come the son of God and God by the grace of divinization,
without first being bom of the Spirit, in the exercise of his
own free choice, owing to the indomitable power of self
determination which naturally dwells within him. {1348A}
This divinizing and divine and nonmaterial birth was
181
31

,
,
,

, ,

,

{Ps
48(49)= 33

,
[Hbr 4:15} , ,
,
, .
32

,
{see Hbr 4:15},

,
, ,
,
.
182
a m b ig u u m
42
rejected by the first man insofar as he preferred what was

superficially pleasing to his senses over spiritual blessings
that w ere not yet fully evident to him, and thus he wTas justly
condemned to a material, mortal, and corporeal birth, out
side the power of his free choice. God therefore deservedly
judged that, for willingly choosing inferior things over what
was better, man should exchange his free, impassible, volun
tary, and chaste birth for an impassioned, servile, coercive
birth after the likeness o f the irrational and mindless beasts of
the earth, and in place o f the divine and ineffable honor of
being with God, man should be left with the dishonor ofbeing relegated to the material level o f mindless beasts, n [1348B]
In His determination to free man from such dishonor and
to restore him to his divine inheritance, the Word who cre
ated human nature truly became man, taking His human na
ture from men, and for our sake was bodily born ye/ without
sin, and He who is God by essence and the Son o f God by na
ture was baptized for our sake, voluntarily subjecting Him
self to the spiritual birth o f adoption, so that bodily birth
might be abolished.
Seeing then that the Son and Word o f God, who created 32
us, and who alone is one in divinity and glory with the Fa
ther and the Spirit, for our sake truly became man like us;
and seeing that He who is God by nature was born bodilyyet
without sin and for our sake accepted the birth of baptism
unto spiritual adoption, I believe that for this reason the
teacher connected the birth of baptism with the Incarna
tion, [1348C} so that baptism might be considered as the
abolition and release from bodily birth. For the very thing
183
( )
,
, ,
, ,
, , ,
,

, 88
,
(John 1:12-13}
,
,
, ,
,
,
,
,
, ,
,
.
184
AM BIGU U M
42
which Adam freely rejected (I mean the birth by the Spirit

leading to divinization), and for which he was condemned to
bodily birth amid corruption, is exactly what the Word as
sumed willingly out o f His goodness and love for mankind,
and, by becoming man in accordance with our fallen state,
willingly subjecting Himself to our condemnation (though
He alone is free and sinless), and consenting to a bodily
birth, in which lay the power o f our condemnation, He mys
tically restored birth in the Spirit; and so for our sake, hav
ing dissolved in Himself the bonds o f bodily birth, He
granted, through birth in the Spirit, to those who believe in His
name the power to become children o f God instead o f [1348D}
flesh and blood. On account of my condemnation, the Lord
first submitted Himself to Incarnation and bodily birth, af
ter w hich came the birth of baptism received in the Spirit,
to wrhich He consented for the sake of my salvation and res
toration by grace or, to put it more precisely, my re-creation.
In this way God joined together in me the principle of my
being and the principle o f my well-being, and He closed the
division and distance between them that I had opened up,
and through them He wisely drew' me to the principle of
eternal being, according to which man is no longer subject
to carrying or being carried along, since the sequence o f vis
ible realities in motion will reach its end in the great and
general resurrection, through which man [1349A} w'ill be
born into immortality in an existence not subject to altera
tionand because it was for the sake of man that the nature
o f these objects received its being through creation, it wall,
together with him, receive by grace the condition o f essen
tial incorruptibility.
185
33
, , ,.
8
, ,

,

.
.
Ambiguum 43
X ,
, ;
, ;2
2
, ,
,
,
,
, ,
8 6
AM BIGUUM
43
I f it seems good to you at this point to recall the main 33

force o f what has been said, let us recapitulate. We have the
bodily birth o f our Savior, with respect to which was made a
conceptual distinction between the prior principle of na
ture, and that according to which He now exists as we do,
and in which He died; and again between the natural prin
ciple o f creaturely origin and the mode o f birth, as well as
between the different modes of origin o f soul and body ac
cording to their respective substances, and, finally, concep
tion without seed and birth without corruption. Hereafter
it falls to you, as just judges, {1349B} to adopt what is best
from the foregoing interpretations.
Ambiguum 43
F r o m Saint Gregorys second oration On Baptism:
W hy do you seek medications when these are of no
avail? Why do you look for the critical sweat, when
perhaps your departure is imminent?1
This phrase, according to the blessed elder,2 was ad- 2
dressed by the teacher to those who had postponed their
baptism in the hope o f living to indulge their love of plea
sure, and thus he says to them: W hy do you need to learn
from someone else about your departure that is, from
187
; , ;
, ' ;

, , ', ',
', St ' (
, ,
),
, ,

,
,
, , ,

,

,
,
.
8 8
AMBIGUUM 4 3
this lifeand fail to realize that it is already at hand? W hy

do you seek medications when these are of no avail? Why do
you look for the critical sweat, when perhaps your departure
is imminent?3 According to physicians, there are four days
that are critical for those stricken with fever: the fourth day,
the seventh, the ninth, [1349C} and the eleventh, and per
haps the thirteenth as wellfor they say that if on any of
these days they should find the patient drenched with sweat,
they conclude from this that he will live.4 Thus, so that the
sick man might not postpone his baptism in the false expec
tation o f such a sweat, mistakenly believing that he will live
for several years to come, the teacher wisely counsels the
sufferer not to be encouraged by a possible outbreak of this
critical sweat, or vainly to place his hopes in it, since it is
possible that the sweat o f death will come instead, announc
ing the end of this present life. The teachers aim is that the
sick man not be deceived, as I have said, by this sweat, and
consequently be deprived of the divine life, which stands
plainly before us and abides forever, and that he not be pre
occupied with this human and mortal existence, which will
inexorably melt away, since by its very nature it is unstable
and beyond our control, {1349D] forever shifting in the tides
of corruption and alteration, escaping more quickly from
the hands of those who think they have grasped it than a
fleeting dream escapes the mind of a dreamer.
189
Ambiguum 44
-1/ ,
,
.
2
, ,
' ,
, , ;
,
,
, . ,
, ,
, ,
,
,
,

,
,

,
, .
190
AM BIGUUM
44
Ambiguum 44
I P rom Saint Gregorys same second oration On Baptism:
Christ does not like to be stolen from often, even
though He is a great lover of mankind.1
Some people, upon reading these words, have asked: If
God so greatly loves mankind, and is indeed the inexhaust
ible source o f love, so that He cannot be even slightly di
minished by those who draw from Him, why then does He
not like to be stolen from? Is this not how He might better
demonstrate His love o f mankind, {1352A] which is not di
minished by His granting others the possibility to rob Him,
especially when the robbery in question is their salvation,
and to rob Him as often they wish? To those who think this
way, God grants me to state that it is precisely this reluc
tance on His part that is full of love for mankind, or rather
that this reluctance is itself His love for mankind. With re
spect to those who wish to rob something from Christ, the
clearest indication of His consideration for their welfare is
not to allow them to do this frequently; lest they be moved
to cast aside what they have robbed, which in this case is
likely to happen, since salvation will always be readily acces
sible, and therefore easily reappropriated. But those who
appropriate Gods gift on terms such as these will never at
tain a state o f unwavering fixity in the Good, since their ca
pacity to choose between good and evil will always be prone
to what is opposed to the good, owing to the facility with
which the good may be acquired, and consequently deemed
by them to be a thing o f little value. {1352B]
Ambiguum 45
' JL ,
,
.
.
2

, '
,

,
, ,

. ,

,
,

.
' ,
{see Gen 27:17, 20],
,
{see Gen 27:21, 25; Dt 28:29; Lk
192
AM BIGU U M
45
Ambiguum 45
E o , Saint Gregorys oration On Pascha:
He (i.e., Adam) was naked in his simplicity and in a life
devoid of artifice, and without any kind of covering or
barrier. For such was fitting for the primal man.1
What the great teacher secretly reveals through these 2
words is known, I believe, only to those who have received
his same gift o f wisdom and knowledge.2 For having re
moved all the dark fluid of passions and every material at
tachment from their intellective eyes, they were able to per
ceive in all things the ray of true knowledge, and in the light
of its simple, unitary principle, they withdrew their intel
lect from multiplicity (as much as was possible), and through
simplicity of mind received the whole scientific knowledge
[1352C] o f beings. But to men like me, the gloom o f igno
rance continues to eclipse the observation o f the truth,3
because my intellect, like a whirlwind, spins solely around
things that are shaken to and froyet like a blind man with
outstretched hands, who, groping his way through the con
fusion o f the material world, often stumbles upon some
thing of value, I too shall endeavor, with my feeble powers,
to say something about the question that is before us. And I
wall say nothing beyond w'hat God puts into my bands, just as
it is written, so that I might provide nourishment, as far as I
can, to you, my good fathers.4 1 mean that through my ten
tative discourse I hope to offer you the plain and frugal
193
24:39; i John 1:1}

,
,

{Gen 27:30-40},

, ,
[Dt 1:43-44}
3
,

,
,
,
,

, , , ,
,
, ,
.
94
AM BIGUUM
45
contemplation o f my intellective power, receiving in return

the equal measure o f your paternal blessinglest [1352D}
like Esau I do naught but circle ineptly around the field o f
sensible things in a sensory way, and by such dawdling be de
prived o f the ready blessing of the father for whom I have
prepared a repast; or lest, through intellectual arrogance, I
attempt what is beyond my abilities and am wounded by
those who still dwell on the mountain o f my contemplation,
like those men o f Israel, who the law saysforced their way and
went up into the mountain, and theAmorite who dwelt there came
out and wounded them.
I therefore hazard the conjecture that [1353A} the teacher
said these things wishing to point out the difference be
tween the temperament o f the human body in our forefa
ther Adam before the fall, and that which is now observed
within us and predominates, because then the temperament
of mans body was obviously not torn apart by mutually op
posed and corrupting qualities, but was in a state o f equilib
rium devoid of flux and reflux,5 being free o f the continuous
alteration between each of these two, depending on the pre
dominance of one quality or another, for surely man was
not without a share in immortality by grace, nor was he suf
fering, as he is now; from the blows rained down on him by
the scourge of corruption, since his body had a different
temperament, obviously suited to him, and held together
by simple, noncontradictory qualities. Consistent with this
temperament, the first {1353B] man was naked, not because
he was fleshless or bodiless, but because he did not possess
the temperament which thickens the flesh and makes it
mortal and obtuse.6 According to that great teacher, the
195
,
,
,
,
.

4

.
,
, ,
,
,
. ,
, , , ,
.

-

196
A M BIGU U M
45
first man lived a life devoid o f artifice, without d issip at

ing the natural condition of good health that had originally
been imparted to his essential being, and thus he h a d no
need of clothing; and because of his innate dispassion he
was not troubled by any sense of shame, neither was h e af
fected by cold or heat, for which men most certainly devised
the habit o f wearing garments and living in houses.7
Another contemplation of the same difficulty
Or perhaps the teacher is delineating mans {1353C} attri- 4
butes as they were then by stripping away those that are ob
served around him now. For now man is moved either b y the
irrational fantasies of passions, being deceived by his love
of pleasure; or because he is engrossed in the principles of
technical skills, on account o f circumstances, and to meet
his needs; or because he is investigating natural principles
derived from the law of nature in order to acquire knowl
edge. But it seems fair to say that, in the beginning, none o f
these motivating factors held any necessary sway over man,
who was superior to them all. For it was fitting for the pri
mal man to be wholly undistracted by any of the things that
were beneath him, or around him, or oriented to him, but to
have need of one thing alone for his perfection, namely, the
unconditioned motion o f the whole power o f his love for
what was above him, by which I mean God. For being dis
passionate by grace, he was not by pleasure moved to accept
the deception of passions in his imagination; {1353D] and
being without any needs he was free of the necessity,
imposed by circumstances, to make use of arts and skills;
and being wise, his knowledge placed him beyond the
197
.
',
1
,
,
,
,
, ,

,
, ,
,
.
, ,
, ,

,
,
,
,

,

198
AMBIGUUJV1 4 5
contemplation of nature. Thus the first man possessed no

barrier between himself and God, which might have veiled
his knowledge, or hindered his kinship with God, which was
to have been realized as a freely chosen movement to Him
in love, and this is the reason why the teacher describes him
as naked in simplicity, since he was beyond every form o f
inquiry into nature, and why he says that his life was devoid
of artifice, since his life was pure o f any need for arts and
skills; and that he was without any kind o f covering or veil,
since his senses were free of passionate entanglements with
objects of sense perception, to which he was later justly sub
jected, after he found himself facing a deprivation o f things
for which he originally had no need, [1356A] having freely
chosen to become bereft of all things, rather than be com
plete, and to become the lowest o f all beings though he was
created to be the highest.
Another contemplation o f the same difficulty
Or perhaps he was naked, as the teacher says, o f the 5
multiform contemplation and knowledge o f nature, and his
life was devoid of artifice, subsisting outside the various
pursuits concerning the practical life and the acquisition of
virtue, since he possessed by integral habit the untainted
principles of the virtues, and he was without any kind of
covering or veil since he originally had no need to rely
on ideas discursively drawn from sensible objects in order
to understand divine realities, but had solely the simple put
ting forth o f the unitary, simple, all-embracing virtue and
knowledge of things after God, {1356B} which needs only
to actualize its own movement in order to be voluntarily
199
AM BIGU A TO JO H N
.
,
, '
, '
,

,
,

{see Rom 7:23-25; Gal 3:5}
, , Si
.
Ambiguum 46
-I-
, {Mai 4:2},
, .
200
AM BIGUUM
46
manifested. Thus it cannot be doubted that those who, by

means of a philosophical principle, wish to raise themselves
up from the forefathers fall, begin by completely negating
the passions, after which they cease busying themselves
with the principles of technical skills, and finally, peering
beyond natural contemplation, they catch a glimpse o f im
material knowledge, which has absolutely no form suscepti
ble to sense perception or any meaning that can be con
tained by spoken words. Then, just as God in the beginning
created the first man, they too will be naked in the simplic
ity of their knowledge, in their life free of distractions, and
in their mortification o f the law o f the flesh. It would have
been possible to venture a contemplation of this particular
difficulty by means of another, more sublime mode o f inter
pretation, but for now let us leave that aside [ 1 3 J 6 C } for the
reason I gave at the outset of my remarks.
Ambiguum 46
F rom Saint Gregorys same oration On Pascha:
A yearling, like the sun o frighteousness, or rushing forth
from there, or circumscribed in the one whom we
see.1
Many are the appellatives2 o f our Savior, and manifold is 2
the mode pertaining to the meaning of each when under
stood by contemplative anagogy, because according to
201
AM BIGU A TO JO H N

.
.

, ,
,
.
3

,
.

,
,
,

.

,
, [Is 61:2; see Lk 4:19],
, ,
,
, ,
,
, 1 ,
202
AM BIGU U M
46
natural contemplation any particular thing used illustra

tively as an appellation o f the Lord potentially admits of
many interpretations. This is precisely the case Math the dif
ficulty now before us, for, although there are many [1356D}
modes o f contemplation concerning the sunfar more than
ordinary discourse can set forthlet us, for the sake o f
brevity, consider the difficulty at hand in the way the teacher
considered it, unfolding his compressed language to the ex
tent we are able.3
In the first place, a year, according to our holy and wise
teachers, is the periodic return of the sun to the same point
from which it began, a circuit which contains the distinc
tive fivefold characteristic o f time.4 For time is divided and
drawn together by units o f day, [1357A] week, month, sea
son, and year. The same is true of the year itself, which is di
vided into units of hour, day, week, month, and season, yet
its movement remains continuous and uninterrupted by in
tervals, so that the divisions perceived in light of its altera
tions are merely the measurement o f times continuous and
uninterrupted movement.
If in such manner, then, the year unfolds for us according
to the movement of the sun, it follows that the year accept
able to the Lord (as Scripture calls it), when understood alle
gorically, is the entire extension of the ages, beginning from
the moment when God was pleased to give substance to be
ings and existence to what did not exist, and, through His
providencelike an intelligible sun whose power holds the
universe together in stability and graciously consents to
emit its [1357B] rays5He deigned to vary the modes o f His
presence so that the good things He planted in beings might
203

,

{Mt 13:38
42; see Mt 3:12; L k 3:17},
,

{Gen 1:26}
2

.3 ' {Mai 4:2}, ,
{Ape 21:6, 22:13],

, {see Eph
1:23, 4:]
,

.
{Is 61:2; Lk 4 :I9 l>

,
,

.
,
, ,

204
AM BIGU U M
46
ripen to full maturity, until all the ages will have reached
their appointed limit. At that point He will gather together
the fruits of His own sowingunmixed with tares, and hav
ing not so much as even a trace of dust from any chaffand
the whole reason for the movement o f things in motion will
reach its completion; and the worthy will receive the prom
ised, ultimate beatitude o f divinization, and, being gathered
to God by suitability according to likeness, every motion in
them with respect to everything will attain its immediate
limit and rest in the permanence that is in God Himself.
Thus the Lord is called the sun o f righteousness, insofar as He
is the maker and perfecter o f the ages, and the beginning and
end of all things, and the Creator of the wise, fivefold order
of things foreknown in His providence; and because He fills
all things with eternal fight through the inexhaustible rays
of His goodness, and ripens and makes delectable for God
the Father all those who open the furrows of their mind to
receive [1357C] His blessed ray. And He himself is the year
acceptable to the Lord, filled with all those who are being saved
in conjunction with the fivefold motion He intelligibly gen
erates as the sun o f righteousness, a motion which will be com
pletely understood by the person who, through the natural
contemplation o f visible things, in strict accordance with
reason, gathers together spiritual science from intelligible
realities. And He rushes forth from there, as the teacher
says, or is circumscribed in the one whom we see, either
because He rushes forth like light from fight, and true God
from true God,6 since He is begotten of Him who in
20 5
,
,

.
Ambiguum 471
-L-/K

.
2
, , ,
,

' ,

{Ex 12:3}; ,
,
' , /
'
{see Mk 7:32_35> 8:22-26}, [
Cor 10:6] [see Ps
8(9):37]>
,
206
AM BIGU U M
47
essence is the true Father, or because He Himself as man is

circumscribed in the visible form of our nature, just like
[1357D] a sun that, rushing forth from heaven, is circum
scribed in a body with disk-like form.
Ambiguum 47
rom Saint Gregorys same oration On Pascha:
We need not be surprised that, first and foremost, a
lamb is required in each and every house.1
Someone perhaps might ask (and with good reason, as it 2
seems to me), that if Christwho through the law and the
prophets, and by the magnificence of creation, is mystically
[1360AJ proclaimed to those with spiritual ears and eyesis
one, how is it that the law, when ritually celebrating the type
o f Christ, commands that a multiplicity o f lambs be slain in
the houses o f the families? To him we say that, if we wish to re
ceive the Word intelligibly touching the ears and eyes of our
souls, and opening them, on the one hand, to the reception
and contemplation of His mysteries, and, on the other, to
the avenging o f every disobedience and the rejection o f all fu
tilitywe can surely learn the hidden intention of Holy
Scripture by joining the present passage to a similar one
207
'
, , [ Cor
2:2].

, [see Gal 2:19] (

,
,

, ,
,
, , ,

,

,
,
, ,
,
,

, ,
28
AMB IG U U M
47
from the holy apostle, who says: I decided to know nothing in

you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. For each o f those
who has believed in Christ according to his own power, and
according to the [1360B} state and quality of virtue existing
within him, is crucified and crucifies Christ together with
himself, that is, he is spiritually crucified together with Christ.
For each person brings about his own crucifixion according
to the mode of virtue that is appropriate to him: one person
is crucified solely in the sense that he does not actively sin,
having put sin to death by nailing it to the cross through the
fear of God; another is crucified with respect to the pas
sions themselves and so heals the powers of the soul. An
other is crucified with respect to the fantasies that arise
from the passions, not leaving his senses free to admit any o f
the rising waves o f their distractions. Another is crucified
with respect to the sinful thoughts and memories that fol
low in their wake. Still another is crucified with respect to
the deception that arises from sensation; while someone
else is crucified through his rejection o f the relation of natu
ral intimacy between the senses and objects o f sensation.
Another, by means of the cross, quells every movement
{1360C] of sense perception in general, so that he possesses
absolutely nothing within himself operating solely on the
level o f naturew hile another completely ceases even from
intellectual activity itself.2 And there is something greater
than this: he who through dispassion is crucified by means
of practical philosophy, passes over to natural contempla
tion in the spirit, just as if he had passed over from a flesh
of Christ to His soul.3 And he who is put to death by natu
ral contemplation, having cast off the intellects symbolic
209
,

\|> [
Cor 2:16}, 8

, , ,

),
, ,
[ Cor 15:23}

, .
' {see 1 Cor 77, 12:7},

, ,

, ,
, [see 1 Cor 9:22}.
210
AM BIGU U M
47
contemplation o f beings, is transferred to the uniform, sim

ple initiation into theological science, just as if he had been
raised up from a soul o f Christ to the mind o f Christ. But he
who completely negates this initiation ascends beyond it to
the ineffable, [1360D} apophatic indeterminateness, just as
if he had mystically ascended from a mind of Christ to His
divinity. Each person, then, as I have saidaccording to his
own power, and according to the grace o f the Spirit that is
granted to him in respect of his worthinesshas Christ
present in him, and in proportion to him, leading him
through increasing mortification to ever more sublime as
cents. Thus it happens that each o f us in his own rankas if in
a kind of house, built on the level o f virtue that is appropri
ate to himsacrifices the Divine Lamb, partakes of its
fleshes,4and takes his fill of Jesus. For to each person Christ
Jesus becomes his own proper lamb, to the extent that each
is able to contain and consume Him. He becomes some
thing proper to Paul, the great preacher [1361A] of the truth,
and, again, something distinctively proper to Peter, the
leader of the apostles, and something distinctively proper
for each of the saints, according to the measure of each ones
faith, and the grace granted to him by the Spirit, to one in
this way, and to another in that, so that Christ is found to be
wholly present throughout the whole o f each, becoming all
things to everyone.
Ill
Ambiguum 48
yvI
jv
" ,
, ' |/ .
2
,
, ,
,
,
,
.

,
, .

, ,

,

212
a m b i g u u m
48
Ambiguum 48
F :om Saint Gregorys same oration On Pascha:
Whatever is a fleshly and nourishing part of the Word,
together with the intestines and hidden recesses of
the intellect, will be eaten and given up to spiritual di
gestion.1
Having wisely given every nature subsistence, and having 2
concealed the knowledge o f Himself in each o f the rational
substances as the first of their potentials, God gave to us
lowly human beings, as a generous Master, a natural longing
and desire for Him, combining this naturally with the power
of reason, so {1361B] that we might easily be able to know
the ways by which this longing might be satisfied, and not
fail to attain what wre are striving for due to some mistake on
our part. Being moved, therefore, by this longing for the
truth itself and for the wisdom that is manifested in the or
derly governance o f all things, we are urged on to our goal,
striving all the more because of these things, to attain that
for the sake of which we have received this longing. Hav
ing secretly come to learn this, those who are studious and
zealous lovers of truth set before themselves one sole task
and activity, namely, arduous labor in the sendee o f this de
sire, for from the actual observation and orderly sequence
of things itself they have correctly realized that, if in this
present age, they should, through sacred visions, sketch out
to a certain extent the image of the truth of the age to come,
213
, ,

, ' ,
,

,
,
, ,

,
, ,
, ,
, .
, , ,
, 1
[Mt 13:12, 25:29; M k 4 :25 ! Lk 8:18,
19:26}.
3
[see Eph 2:4}

,
, ,

-
, ,
[Eph 1:21},
,
,
2 4
AM BIGU U M
48
and satisfy their longing for it, [1361C} they would thereby
prepare their souls and make them more eager still, so that
after this life they would pass over effortlessly to the truth
o f the life to come, since it would already have been clearly
sketched out within them by the more divine intellections.
Guiding them to this truth is our God and Savior, Jesus
Christ, who reveals it to them as simple, and clear, and free
o f every ambiguity, symbolic complexity, and enigmatic ob
scurity, for just as pain, sorrow, and sighing flee2 from the
life of practical virtue, on account of perfect dispassion, so
too does all obscurity and ambiguity flee from contempla
tive knowledge, on account o f wisdomfor what will be
given to them will be the naked truth, the adumbrations o f
which they had already received here on earth. [1361D] For
to everyone who hasthe desire, quite clearly, for the things
o f the life to comewill certainly he added the enjoyment of
these good things for all eternity.
For our God is rich, and He never ceases distributing the
divine gifts of knowdedge to those who love Him, gifts
which, in this present age, we are not able even to name, on
account o f their sublimity and magnitudeif indeed what
the great apostle says is true, namely, that the ultimate bless
edness is fa r above every name that is named, not only in this age
but also in that which is to come, alluding here to the highest
summit o f good thingswhich will appear after the dis
tribution of every gift, and [1364A} after every ascent, and
w'hich cannot be uttered by any word or known by any
mindthings, I say, that are attainable by us in this age and
215
, , . {Hbr
4:14], ,
[Eph 4 : 1>

,
, ,
[Hbr 11:32}
[ Cor 3:18], { Cor
15:23] .
4

[see 1 Cor 10:3},
, ,
,
, , , , ,

[see 1 Cor 15:23}
,
.
210
A M B IG U l'M
48
o f the things that will be revealed to us in the age to come

and which we wall perhaps name and know. For Jesus, the
Word of God, who has passed through the heavens, and who is
beyond all o f the heavens, always raises up those who follow
Him in their practice and contemplation, so that they are
taken from inferior things to superior ones, and again from
these to what is still higher than these, and, to put it sim
ply time wouldfa il me to tell of the divine ascents and revela
tions of the saints, in their transformationfrom glory toglory,
through the moment when each one of them receives the divinization that is most fitting to hisproper order.
Knowing, {1364B] then, that we have this natural longing 4
for God, that great teacher exhorts and invites all through
his teaching to partake o f the spiritual food of the Lamb
that was slain on our behalf, counseling us to maintain the
Lambs members distinctly and usefully in their unbroken
and unconfused organization, lest we be condemned for
breaking and tearing asunder the harmonious arrangement
o f the divine bodyeither because we eat o f the flesh of
the Lamb and Word overconfidently, if such eating be be
yond our ability, or profanely, if it be averse to our ability
but let each of us, according to his ability rank, and the
grace of the Spirit that has been given to him, partake of the
divine Word in conformity with the meaning o f each of His
parts. [1364CI
For example, the head shall be partaken of by whosoever 5
217
'
,
'
{Col 2:19}.

, '
{see Phlp 2:8] ,
'
'
{see Phlp 1:10-11].

, {see
John 13:25, 21:20},
.

,

- ,
, ' , '

. ,
'
{ Cor 2:10] ' .
6
. 2

218
AM BIGU U M
48
possesses, from indemonstrable first principles, a faith

whose rational principles o f theology are entirely free, for it
is on the basis o f such faith that the whole body of the vir
tues and knowledge is knit together and grows with spiritual
growth. The ears shall be partaken o f by whosoever spiritu
ally receives the divine words with knowledge, and because
o f these words becomes in actual deeds submissive and obedi
ent to God unto death. The eyes shall be partaken of by who
soever beholds creation spiritually, and blamelessly gathers
together all the principles pertaining to sensation and intel
lect for the singular fulfillment o f the glory of God. The
breast shall be partaken of by whosoever has filled his heart
with theological contemplations, like the great Evangelist
John, and like an inexhaustible source he piously {1364D]
pours forth, for the benefit of those eager to learn, the rea
son and mode in which the providence o f the universe is
comprehended. The hands shall be fittingly partaken o f by
whosoever does not carry out the work o f the command
ments carelessly or indifferently, but has the whole o f his
souls energy for practical exercise ready and resolute for ful
filling the divine laws. The stomach shall be partaken o f by
him whose fecundity o f soul is ceaselessly productive, and
so he abounds with spiritual contemplations, and never
quenches the burning desire of his dispassionate appetite
for intercourse with the Divine. The intestines shall be ap
propriately partaken o f by whosoever shall probe into, by
means of a more hidden inquiry and knowledge, the depths of
the mind o f God, taking his fill of ineffable mysteries. [1365A]
My discourse will dare to venture something even greater. 6
O f the lower members of the Word let him partake chastely
219
,
,
.

,

,
.

,
[Phlp 3:14].

{Ct 2:8].

, ;
,
, , , ,
. .
,
, , ,
220
AM BIGU U M
48
who stands in the strength of his reason when confronting

matter, and who together with his soul keeps his flesh per
fectly undefiled, and who by means o f the virtues completely
forms within it the whole Word who became flesh. Of the
thighs let him partake who has reason set in authority over
the passionate part of his soul, and who has completely up
rooted its propensity toward matter. O f the knees let him
partake who providentially bends down in compassion to
those who have fallen and are weak in faith, thereby imitat
ing the gracious condescension to us of the Word. Of the
shanks and feet, moreover, let him partake whose soul has
unshakeable and immovable footings in faith, virtue, and
knowledge, and whose aim is to hasten [1365B] to theprize o f
his higher calling and who together with the Word leaps over
the hills of ignorance and bounds over the mountains o f evil.
But who would be able to enumerate all the aspects o f
God our Savior, which exist for our sake, and according to
which He has made Himself edible and participable to all in
proportion to the measure of each? For in addition to all
these, the Lord has locks o f hair, a nose, lips, throat, shoul
ders, fingers, and whatever else belongs to our human frame
that may be applied to Him metaphorically. Proper and
profitable communion in these is attained by those who as
similate each member in fight of the spiritual meaning sig
nified by each. In this manner, according to that holy and
great teacher, the Lamb o f God is eaten, and given up
to spiritual digestion, {1365C} assimilating to Himself,
through the Spirit, those who partake of Him, for He guides
and transposes each one to the place in the body that
221
AM BIGU A TO JO H N
3
,

.
Ambiguum 49
JL./K ,
' [Col 3:5})
[Mt 3:4; Mk 1:6],

.2
2

.
.

.

.
222
AM BIGU U M
49
corresponds to the member that was spiritually eaten by

him, so that in a way befitting His love o f mankind the
Word, who is in all things, might take on substance, though
He alone transcends nature and mind.
Ambiguum 49
f r o m Saint Gregorys same oration On Pascha:
Having put to death the members that are on the earth, and
imitating the cincture o f John, the desert-dweller and
forerunner and great herald of the truth.1
The one who imitates the cincture of John is he who by 2
the power of reason tightly binds the fecundity o f his soul in
actual practice informed by knowledge, thereby preserving
it from diffusion in matter. A desert-dweller is he {1365D]
whose habit o f mind is purified of the passions. A forerun
ner is he who through his genuine repentance heralds the
righteousness that follows it, and through his outward vir
tue heralds the knowledge that eventually will descend upon
both.2 A great herald o f the truth is the man whose own
life confirms the word o f teaching spoken by his mouth.
[1368A]
223
Ambiguum 50
L -/k ,
, '
[see M t 10:9-10; Mk 6:8-9;
L k 9:3], , 8
[Rom 10:15; Is
527}

.
'

,
,
, ,
,
, , ,
[see Is 97
,
,

224
AM BIGU U M 50
Ambiguum 50
rom Saint Gregorys same oration On Pascha:
And if any disciple is sent to preach the Gospel, let
him do so in a spirit o f philosophy and without excess.
In addition to the fact that he must be without either
money or staff and possess but a single tunic, he must
also go about barefooted, so that the feet of those who
preach the Gospel o f peace might be seen to be beau
tiful. 1
The Gospel is the higher principle concerning the king- i
dom of God. The kingdom of God is the state of rest that
is pure of all matter and its attendant fantasies. A disciple
sent to preach is undoubtedly someone whose manner of
life gives testimony to his complete separation from this
world. To be without money or staff and possessing but a
single tunic indicates either the renunciation of avarice and
anger or reluctance to assume any kind o f authority. [1368B]
Such a disciple takes to himself the single tunic, as it were,
o f guileless, unfeigned, single-minded ethical philosophy
completely free o f all duplicity To the foot o f his soul he ties
no symbol o f deadness, figured here as a sandal. Seeing that
he is like an angelic messenger of great peacea herald of a
state of mind which no longer fears the war of the passions,
nor cringes before the death o f the bodythose who look
to him with understanding, and who behold his unchanging,
225
'
'
.
1
3
,
,
,

.
, ,
,
[see Ex 12:1-28; Nm 9:_5; J os 5:_23
,

,
2 .

,
,
, , .
,

,
, ,
220
AM BIGU U M
50
virtuous way o f life, are able to produce an image o f the

most beautiful life and stability o f the angels around God.
Another contemplation of the same

Or, perhaps, for the sake of speaking simply, and in imi- 3
tation [1368C] o f the cincture o f John,2 and because the
Pasch may yet again be eaten in a manner consistent with
the Gospel, our father Gregory was, for pedagogical pur
poses, alluding to the differences between the partakers of
the Pasch and the modes o f the Pasch itself. For the word of
the Old Testament describes three Paschs: one celebrated in
Egypt, another in the wilderness, and the other in the prom
ised land. Now Egypt, according to one of its allegorical in
terpretations, signifies this world, whereas the wilderness,
according to one of the ways it may be contemplated, alle
gorically points to the state of the soul after death, whereas
the promised land prefigures the age to come. For there are
three places and states in which we human beings find our
selves: this present world, in which we receive our being and
are born; {1368D} the place in which we find ourselves af
ter death, after we leave this world; and the future age, in
which we will be contained together with our souls and bod
ies. As long a time as we are in this present world, we cele
brate the Pasch in Egypt, being purified of the stains o f sin;
when, however, we depart from this life through death, we
will again celebrate the Pasch, but a different one, as if in the
227
A M BIG U A TO JOHN
' '
, '

,
,
,
,

.
.
4
,
, ,
, , , [ Cor 10:3}.
,
,
{ Cor 10:4-5],
,
,
,
, , ,
. ,

[Eph 3:18-19]
228
AM BIGUUM
50
wilderness, for then, intelligibly and apart from the body, we

will have understood the principles o f beings more clearly,
[1369} without symbols or figures, and without the com
plexity produced by sensation; and again we wrill celebrate
the Pasch in the future age of the divine promises, where
without any mediation we will partake o f the most sublime
Word of Wisdomand being transformed in accordance
with Him, we will become Gods by grace. Beyond this, we
have no other passage to any other kind of Pasch, although
it is possible for us, who are present even here, to create an
image of each o f the states characteristic of the places just
mentioned. For the life o f every man is characteristic of the
place in which he exists.
For example, when we courageously pursue practical philosophy, we celebrate the Pasch auspiciously in Egypt, liv
ing in the midst o f Egyptians, without being Egyptians our
selves, for though we are in theflesh, we are not waging a carnal
{1369B] war. But if we piously practice natural contempla
tion in spirit, transforming the powers o f the soul into pow
erful weapons o f God, for the destruction o f strongholds and every
proud obstacle to the knowledge o f God, as well as for contem
plation of the spiritual principles in beingsjust as if we
were naked of the body and free of the deceitful fantasies o f
the sensesmaking our way cognitively to the divine prom
ises, then we are in the wilderness, by which I mean that
state which has been cleansed of the passions and of every
fantasy related to matter. If, on the other hand, we give form
to theological mystagogy by the ineffable movements o f the
intellect, no longer being ignorant (to the extent that this is
possible for human beings) of what is the breadth and length
and depth and the surpassing magnitude o f the wisdom of God,
229
,
.

,

.
Ambiguum 51
. . ... . .
-1/ ,
' ,
,
, , [see
Gen 31:19-21] ,
.
' , ,
, , .

, . '
,
,

,
230
AM BIGU UM 51
we are {1369C} in the promised land. Thus I think that the

teacher, by distinguishing the three persons, was alluding
to practical, natural, and theological philosophy, through
which each one o f us, in proportion to his inherent poten
tial, partakes of the intelligible Pasch.
Ambiguum 51
.F ro m Saint Gregorys same oration On Pascha:
If you are a Rachel or a Leah, a patriarchal and great
soul, steal whatever idols of your father you might
find, not, however, so that you may keep them, but so
that you may destroy them. If, however, you are a wise
Israelite, take them to the promised land.1
Rachel, as they say, means lamb or shepherdess, 2
whereas Leah means weary or weariness. [1369D} Thus
Rachel is both shepherded and shepherds; she both leads
and is led, consistent with the meaning o f her name. From
this it follows that Rachel is every contemplative soul who
like a lamb is shepherded and led by the law o f God, and
who, according to the law o f God, shepherds and leads her
impulses and thoughts in the established ways of ascetical
practiceand, having hitherto subordinated the passions
231
,
.
,
,
.

,
.

[Gen 30:38}.

,
,
.

,
',

.
, ,
,
, ,
.
232
AM BIGUUM
JI
o f the flesh to the fecundity of virtue, she utterly destroys

them after her entrance into knowledge. Leah, on the other
hand, is every soul engaged in ascetical practice, suffering
weariness for the sake o f virtue, for virtue is indeed the first
thing that those who pursue divine philosophy [1372A] wish
to take to themselves, as if through marriage. The wise Is
raelite is the contemplative intellect, which transposes the
intellections of this age to the realm o f knowledge, in the
manner o f the great Jacob, who removed all the property o f
Laban to the land o f the fathers. For just as that wondrous
Jacob, according to the literal account,peeled offthe barkfrom
the rods and laid them in the hollows o f the watering troughs, so
that the sheep who drank from them would conceive at the sight
o f them, so too does every intellect that is supremely wise in
spirit, by stripping away the surrounding matter from the
more divine principles of beings, and submitting them to
the contemplative modes o f knowledge, teach all its disci
ples (as well as the motions o f its own soul) to be conformed
to the condition o f the incorporeal angels.2 In this way, Leah
is the patriarch o f those who are acquiring virtue through
the labors and weariness o f the practical life, {1372B]
whereas Rachel is the patriarch of those rationally pursuing
virtue through natural contemplation, for she is led obedi
ently by the law o f God, and she meekly leads others in ac
cordance with it. But the renowned Jacob is the patriarch
o f those who pursue the height of knowledge through spiri
tual contemplation, those, I mean, who behold and know
visible objects, not at all as they appear to sight, but as they
are understood by the intellect, and who abundantly trans
pose them, together with their inner meanings, to knowl
edge that is immaterial and incorporeal.3
233
Ambiguum 52
-L/K ,
, [see M t 27:32; M k 15:21; Lk 23:26].
, , , .
, '
[Col 3:5}
, ,
, 1
,
' .
Ambiguum 53
5
J /K ,
,
.

-
AM BIGU U M
53
Ambiguum 52
If you are a Simon of Cyrene, take up the cross and
follow.1
Simon means obedience, while Cyrene, they {1372C} 2
say means readiness. Thus anyone who is ready for obedi
ence to the Gospel, and who, through the mortification o f
his earthly members, eagerly endures the affliction o f practi
cal philosophy for the sake o f virtue, has become Simon of
Cyrene; voluntarily practicing virtue, bearing the cross on
his shoulders, and following Christ, he shows that his way o f
life according to God is completely removed from the earth.
Ambiguum 53
If as a thief you should be crucified with Him, then as
one who is grateful you should acknowledge G od.1
A grateful thief crucified together with {1372D] Christ is 2
every man who, in suffering ill treatment because o f sins for
235
, ,
,
,

,
,

,

[ Tim 6:16}.
,
,

,
,
.
53a.
3
2 3
AM BIGU U M
53
which he is to blame, suffers ill-treatment together with the

Word (who blamelessly suffered ill treatment for his sake),
and endures this with gratitude. Recognizing that the Word
is present with him according to the providence o f just judg
ment, and acknowledging his responsibility for the ill treat
ment that he suffers, he asks that, just as the Word, who is
blameless, shared in his suffering, He Himself might also
impart to him His own benefaction, even though he is un
worthy, and that, when the wise veils are removed from the
providential workings of the Word, and the unapproachable
light o f His [1373A] kingdom will shine forth, the death im
posed on him by circumstances might, on account of his
gratitude, be reckoned as a virtue he had freely chosen. This
is how the mortification o f the bodys members, brought
about by circumstances, comes full circle for someone suf
fering through sin: through grateful thanksgiving it is trans
formed into voluntary virtue, absolving him o f his many
debts incurred by sin, so that he lawfully enters with the
Word into the realm o f knowledge, by which I mean para
dise, in which he will know the reason for the condemna
tion and ill treatment to which we are now subjected.
53a.
The ungrateful thief is one who, suffering ill treatment 3
because o f sin, for which he is to blame, fails to recognize,
because o f his contentious frame o f mind, the Word o f righ
teousness, who in His love for mankind is blamelessly suf
fering together with him. Instead, such a man blasphe
mously repudiates the reason for his punishment,2which by
237
AM BIGUA TO JO H N
,
'
,
,
.1
53b.
4

,

,
.

{see Hbr
4:12]
.
53C.

, ,
,
, , ,
, {see Rom 8:7],
{Rom 8:2}
238
AM BIGU U M
53
providence was justly ordained for him. [1373B} And because

he failed to recognize the Word, who of His own will was
dishonorably condemned together with him, and, because
he did not ask forgiveness for his faults, he is sent away es
tranged from the kingdom, receiving no promise from the
Word that at some point he might attain it.
53b. Another contemplation o f the same passage
And, again, the grateftd thief is someone who comes to 4
consciousness o f his faults, even if this happens only at the
very final moment of this present fife of his, and who rec
ognizes with understanding the reason of divine judgment
pertaining to his life on earth, which was justly ordained
and carried out, and who sincerely asks forgiveness from the
depth of his soul for his sins. But the ungrateful thief is
someone who reaches the very final moment o f his time on
earth, {1373C] and, clinging ignobly to life, casts blame on
the law and limit of the souls separation from the body
(which were wisely established by Gods just judgment),
contending that they were wrongfully legislated.
53c. Another contemplation o f the same passage
And, again, inasmuch as each o f us is twofold in nature,
constituted of soul and body the thief is anyone who, for
the sake of virtue, is secretly crucified with the Word in ei
ther o f the elements o f which he is constituted, consistent
with the natural law of each. He is like the ungrateful thief
when he holds the law o f the flesh in opposition to the prin
ciple o f virtue, but when, like the grateful thief, he lays hold
of the law o f the spirit, he receives the Savior Word through
239
,
, , ,

2 ,
[Rom 8:6-7} .
53d. 3
6

, [see
Mt 27:38; Mk 15:27; Lk 23:33],
,
,
Si
.

,

, ,
[Mt 22:16; Mk 12:14; Lk
20:21} [z Pt 2:2;
Tit 1:11}. "
,
[Lk 23:39_4 Il

.
240
AM BIGUUM
53
the modes of ascetical practice (even if these be arduous),

{1373D] and being completely released from the mind o f flesh,
he joyfully enters with Him into the place of abundant feast
ing, lavishly laden with every form of knowledge.
53d. Another contemplation of the same passage

And, once again, the grateful thief is he who has been 6
deemed worthy to be crucified together with Christ through
complete and total mortification of the passions, and to be
crucified to the right of Him, that is, who goes through ev
ery virtue with reason and knowledge, [1376A} keeping his
life void o f offense in the eyes o f all men, and possesses ab
solutely no motion which by its harshness would be at vari
ance with the meekness of the Word. The ungrateful thief,
on the other hand, is he, who for the sake of glory or mate
rial gain, superficially feigns the life of virtue by a show of
external mannerisms, comporting himself before strangers
not with any virtue or knowledge but solely with words of
flattery, whereas among those he knows he is completely
perverse in his thinking and difficult in his exchanges such
a one must be silenced with intelligence, since he greatly blas
phemes the way of God. For it may happen that the exhorta
tion of one who rebukes him might make him cease slander
ing the Word through his manner of life, just as it happened
to the thief on the cross, who impetuously uttered blas
phemy. For he did not respond to the one who rebuked him,
{1376BJ and such silence is a sign that the word of rebuke has
been accepted.
241

, , ,

,

( , , -
[Lk 23:43})! ,
,

.
Ambiguum 54
,
,
[M t 27:57-60; Mk 15:42-46;
Lk 23:50-53}
To 1 ,
, , ,
, , ,
, ,
,
242
AMBIGUUM 54
In accordance, then, with one of the aforementioned

contemplations, whereby we are crucified together with
Christ, let us endeavor, for as long as we are in this world, to
propitiate the Word who is crucified together with usand
with our conscience cleansed by the thoughts that rebuke it,
let us receive the truthful promise of rest, since the word
today indicates the present day of this age (for today. He
says, you w ill be with me in paradise), whereas tomorrow is
the day o f the age to come, when we should not expect to
receive any remission of our sins, but only the rendering o f
the just recompense for whatever we have done with our
fives. {1376C]
Ambiguum 54
F r o m Saint Gregorys same oration On Pascha:
And if you are a Joseph from Arimathea, ask for the
body from him who crucified it.1
The body o f Christ is either the soul, or its powers, or 2
senses, or the body of each human being, or the members of
the body, or the commandments, or the virtues, or the inner
principles of created beings, or, to put it simply and more
truthfully, each and all o f these things, both individually
. , ,
, ,
.
2 ' , ,
. 3
4 ,
,
,

,
,
{Rom 6:13},

, ,

, ,
,
,
, [Rom 11:36].
, ,
.
244
AM BIGU U M
54
and collectively, are the body of Christ. The one who cruci
fies this bodythat is, who crucifies all of these thingsis
the devil, who does this through the man who consents to
their crucifixion, not allowing them to function according
to their nature. Joseph, in Hebrew, means addition, while
Arimathea means, raise that up. Thus every man who pos
sesses an addition of faith and knowledge, and who is aug
mented by the modes o f virtue, and who has stripped away
from himself every [1376D] deception arising from mate
rial things, is a spiritual Joseph, able to receive the body of
Christ and bury it properly, placing it in the niche that faith
has hewn in his heart, by grace making his own body like the
body o f Christ, and the members o f his body as instruments
o f righteousness to God for sanctification, placing the bodys
senses in service to the soul, according to the innate law of
natural contemplation in the spirit. As for the soul itself, he
balances its powers [1377A} for the fulfillment o f virtue, and,
having subjected both the soul and its powers to the com
mandments of God, he demonstrates that these command
ments are the natural activities of the soul. And through his
fixed and immovable habit o f virtue, he is raised up to un
derstand and receive the more divine principles hidden in
the commandments; and, as if in a kind of shroud, he places,
together with the spiritual principles of this present age, the
Primal Word,Jrow whom, and through whom, and to whom are
all things. The one who so maintains this beautiful and good
order o f things is a Joseph, secretly burying the mystical
body o f Christ.
245
,

[see Cor 1:18],

,

5 .

,

.
Ambiguum 55
I / ,
[John
9:39_42> .
,
, -
246
AM BIGU U M
55
Another contemplation o f the same passage

And, again, to speak concisely, the one who by practice 3
and contemplation [1377B} wondrously transmits to his lis
teners the principles concerning the cross, has become an
other Joseph, augmenting his spiritual knowledge by the ad
dition of the good things acquired from contemplation.
And he will be of Arimathea when, through genuine famil
iarity with the virtues actualized in practice, he cuts away
from himself every attachment to material things.
On the other hand, those who blasphemously teach the 4
principles concerning Gods embodiment crucify Christ,
but whosoever proclaims the principles o f Gods incarna
tion with boldness and piety to all, places Christ in the
tomb. [1377C]
Ambiguum 55
f r o m Saint Gregorys same oration On Pascha, on the
words:
A nd if you are a Nikodemos, pious by night, bury H im
with perfumed oils.1
A Nikodemos, pious by night and preparing Christs 2
body for burial with perfumed oils, is he who has great
247
,
, ,
( ) ,

.
Ambiguum 56
J E / ,
, , ,
, .
,
{see M t 28:1-10; M k 16:1-12; Lk 24:1-10; John
20:1-17}.2
2
,
[Mk 16:9}, ,
. ,
, , 1
. {Mt
28:1] ,
248
AM BIGU U M
56
strength of mind to recognize Christ, but who shows undue

consideration for the flesh through cowardly fear of the
Jews (by which I mean the assaults o f the passions or the de
mons), and loses his resolve to practice the commandments.
For such a one it must be reckoned a great thing simply that
he thinks good thoughts about Christ, and does not utter
blasphemous words.
Ambiguum 56
f r o m Saint Gregorys same oration On Pascha:
And if you are a Mary, or the other Mary, or a Salome,
[1377D] or ajoanna, shed tears at dawn. Be first to cast
your eyes on the stone taken away, and perchance you
will see the angels andJesus Himself.1
The first Mary, from whom the Word cast out seven de- 1
mons, is every soul engaged in ascetic practice, having been
cleansed from the disquiet of this age through the word o f
the Gospels commandments. For this age is divided into
seven periods, being completed when time winds its way
back to itself,2 {1380A] and it is from this that the Word de
livers His disciples, placing them above all things subject to
time. The other Mary is every contemplative soul, which in
249
.
,
,
, '

{Rom 8:6-7],

. ,
, , ,

. ,
,
.
{John 20:1; Mk
16:3; Lk 24:2}, [see M k 3:5; Eph 4;|8}
,
, .

3
,
,
, .
,
' {John 20:12].

2JO
AM BIGUUM
56
true knowledge has acquired kinship with the Word through

grace. Salome, which means peace or plenitude, is every
soul that has attained peace through the rejection o f the
passions, and which through its abundance o f practical vir
tues has subjected the mind o f theflesh to the law of the Spirit;
and being filled with the spiritual intellections of contem
plation, it wisely comprehends, as much as possible, the
knowledge o f beings. Joanna, which means dove a meek,
guileless, and fecund creature3is every soul that through
meekness has expelled the passions, [1380B] and the fecun
dity of w hose spirit is ablaze with knowledge. It is such as
these who shed tears at dawn, that is, who pour forth tears
of knowledge as they seek the Word, who is the supreme
sovereign of all virtue and knowledge. And they are the first
to see the stone removedfrom the entrance of the tomb, that is,
the hardness' that lies heavily on the heart and which obscures
the Word; and they see angels, that is, they see in spirit the
natural principles of beings, which silently proclaim the
Word who is the cause o f all.
Another contemplation of the angels

Or they are the words5 o f Sacred Scripture, furnishing the 3
women with a clearer notion concerning Christ as God and
man, that is, concerning theology and economy. {1380C} For
Scripture says that the women saw one angel at the head, and
another at the feetat the head signifies the principle of
theology concerning the divinity o f Christ, and at the feet
251
,
, ,

.
'
4
,
,

.
, ,

[M t 28:9-10; John 20:14-18}.
Ambiguum 57
JL J/ k ,
,
, , {John 20:3-8}.
2
252
AM BIGUUM 57
signifies the principle o f the economy pertaining to the In

carnation; and if someone were to say that the head of
Christ is His divinity, whereas the feet are His humanity,
he would not be wide o f the mark.6

Or perhaps the angels are the stirrings within the con- 4
science concerning the principle of piety, owing to the com
plete rejection of evil and ignorancestirrings that intelligi
bly proclaim to the women the resurrection of the Word,
who because of evil had once lain dead within them. And
{1380D] finally they see the Word Himself clearly appearing
to them, without symbols or figures, and filling the recep
tive capacities of their intellect with spiritual joy.
Ambiguum 57
Become a Peter or a John, and hasten to the tomb,
running in rivalry, running in tandem, contesting for
superiority in this beautiful contest.1
Peter is every man who has acquired the foundation of 2
faith in Christ throughout the course of his life. John, on the
253

,

[Col 2:3},

[see John 13:23, 25; 19=26; 21:7, 20}.
, ,

.
,
.

3

,
, , ,
, ,

.
254
AM BIGU U M
57
other hand, is he who is beloved by the Word for his great

meekness, {1381A} and for the unmixed purity of heart that
this produces. This is why he is entrusted with the treasures
o fwisdom and knowledge, and by reclining on the breast obtains
from the hidden divinity o f the Word the power to speak
theologically.2 And these two run in rivalry" with each
otherthe former, with his virtuous practice striving to tri
umph over the latters contemplation, while the latter, with
his cognitive contemplation, hastens to overtake the prac
tice of the former. Yet they run in tandem according to
their common aim and purpose, each man advancing equally
well in accordance with the good that is proper to him.
Another contemplation of Peter and John

Again, Peter and John signify any {1381B] person who has
been found worthy to draw near to God, running in tandem
with reason, either through the souls capacity for practical
activity, like a kind of Peter, or through the contemplative
part, like John, without either one being excessive or defi
cient with respect to the other. And, again, they are seen to
run as rivals with respect to their aim and purpose, so that
each one seeks to surpass the farthest point attained by the
other.
255
Ambiguum 58
..
/ k ,

, , .
, . ,
(John 20:24-29}
(John 11:16, 20:24, 2:2}, 6
,
1
.

, 2 [Rom 3=25}.
,
[John 20:28] ,
.

, ,
256
AM BIGUUM
58
Ambiguum 58
F r o m Saint Gregorys same oration On Pascha, on the
words:
And even if, like Thomas, you should happen to be ab
sent from the group o f disciples to whom Christ ap
pears, do not doubt Him when at last you see Him.
And should you doubt, believe in those who speak to
you of Him. And if not them, then believe the marks
o f the nails.1 {1381C}
Thomas means double, which signifies doubt, or a per- 1
son who is of doubtful mind, which is why he would not
believe in the resurrection o f the Word until he had touched
the marks of the nails. Thomas therefore is every doubting
man who finds it difficult to believe that the resurrection o f
virtue and knowledge o f the Word takes place within him.
For such a man, only the memories o f his former sins, im
printed in his mind without any trace of passion, can per
suade him to accept the resurrection of the divine Word
within him, and to confess Him as Lord and God. As Lord,
because He establishes the law o f perfection through the
practical life; and as God, because He is the guide to com
plete initiation into contemplation. A dispassionate mem
ory is the imprint of what took place in the past; it is the
souls awareness o f its own deeds and thoughts, experienced
without any sensation o f either pleasure or pain with re
spect to its activity or motivation; as such it preserves the
2J7

,
,
'
,

-
,

.
Ambiguum 59
J L j k ,
, {see Pt 3:19}
,
.
2j 8
AM BIGU U M 59
marks o f the wounds, but the wounds inflicted by the origi

nal blows have healed owing to the subsequent acquisition
o f dispassion.2
Or, again, nails perchance are the modes of the virtues 3
in practical philosophy, painfully nailing the souls [1384A]
disposition to the fear o f God. These are superseded by the
dispassionate, simple, and ineffable principles of knowl
edge, which piercingly proclaim the resurrection of the di
vine Word in the divinization o f the soul, showing in ad
vance that this resurrection faithfully bears witness to the
dispassion of the deiform state o f soul. Whoever has not
himself experienced this will never believe another mans
account of it, just as Thomas did not believe the resurrec
tion that was experienced and recounted to him by the
apostles until he had experienced it himself.
Ambiguum 59
-F ro m the same oration On Pascha:
Should He descend into Hades, descend together
with Him. Learn the mysteries o f God that take place
there, and what is the principle o f the double descent.1
[1384B}
259
A M B 1G U A T O J O H N

, '
.
, ,
, .

, ,

,
,

,
.
, ,

, ' ,
,

.
200
AM BIGUUM
59
The spiritual man, knowing that the Word of God exists 2

everywhere without suffering defilement, follows him by
means of contemplation, intelligently gleaning the science
of universal providence. Thus, when the Word descends
into Hades, he descends together with Him, obviously not
in pursuit of evil, but in order to search out and understand
the mystery o f the descent of God into Hades, and to be
taught the transcendent principle o f what takes place and is
performed there.
Or, again, since Hades is every sinwhich darkens,
disfigures, and corrupts every soul in its powerwhoever
{1384C] enters into dialogue concerning the passions de
scends into Hades together with the word o f his teaching,
vivifying through his word every virtue deadened by evil and
leading it to resurrection, and, together with the Word, vig
orously breaks the bonds o f material attachment with which
souls are shackled. The reason for the double descent, in
its most basic sense, according to the first interpretation,
is that the Word is able on earth to save embodied souls
through their faith and purity of life, and when He descends
below the earth, He is able to save the souls of the previ
ously departed through their faith alone. According to the
second interpretation, it means that the habitual propen
sity for vice and its actuality in the soul can be restored to
[1384D] virtue and knowledge by the Word.
261
Ambiguum 60
-1_ /k
- v
-
,
, .

[see Ps 23(24)71 9
2

,

,
, ,
,
(
) ,
, ,

,

.

,
202
AM BIGUUM
Ambiguum 6
F rom the same oration On Pascha:
Should He ascend into the heavens, ascend with Him.
Jo in the angels who are accompanying or receiving
Him; command the gates to be opened.1
Whosoever, through plentiful abundance o f knowledge 2
and rich participation in the Holy Spirit, has adequately at
tained (to the extent that this is possible) the principle con
cerning providence, and has grasped the science of it, as
cends from earth to the heavens together with the ascending
Word, since cognitively [1385A] he has traversed the nature
o f all things that come under the care of providence, visible
and invisible, together with the principles pertaining to that
nature; and having ascended to the final state, which itself is
absolutely devoid of any kind of carrying or motion (and to
which he was moving through every principle and mode), he
is lifted up by the accompanying principles o f providence
in beings, as if by escorting angels, to the realm o f the inef
fable principles and mysteries of theology that receive him,
and by means of his various ascensions he enlarges the spiri
tual gates of his soul to receive the most supremely divine
Word.2
And again, contemplating this differently, while the
Word ascends, together with Him ascends the man who is
263
,
1
.
,
,
,
2
8 (John 17:5})
8
,
,
,
,

{Phlp 27].
264
AM BIGUUM
exalted together with the Word, who is lifting him upward

from the ways of practical philosophy, as if from a kind of
earth, to something like [1385B} the heavens, that is, the
spiritual heavens of contemplative knowledge.
Another contemplation of the same passage
And to disclose a greater secret about these things: who- 4
soever is able to be lifted up from the knowledge concern
ing the dispensation, that is, from the Words world o f flesh
made by the Father, to the intellection o f the glory of the
Words flesh with the Father before the world was made, has
truly ascended into the heavens together with God the
Word, who for his sake descended to earth. Such a man has
reached the limit of knowledge that human beings can con
tain in this present age, for he has become God to the de
gree that God has become man, for man has been guided by
God, [1385CI through the stages of divine ascent, into the
highest regions, to the same degree that God has descended
down to the farthest reaches o f our nature, emptying Him
self without change.
265
Ambiguum 61
f J - , ,
,
, ' [ 25:8-27:21, 36:1_
38:26; Nm 7 :_ 11
2

,
.
, ,
,

, .

, ,
, , ,
, , , ,
.
206
AM BIGUUM
Ambiguum 61
F rom Saint Gregorys oration On the New Sunday:
The tent o f witness is dedicatedand most magnifi
centlya tent that God revealed, Bezalel completed,
and Moses securely pitched.1
Seeing that the anagogical interpretation of the tent gen- 2
erates a wide range of meanings on the level of contempla
tion, let us consider it here as it was understood by the
teacher. The tent o f witness is the mysterious [1385D} dis
pensation o f the Incarnation of God the Word, which God
the Father was pleased to reveal, and which was com
pleted with the cooperation o f the Holy Spirit (of whom
the wise Bezalel was a type), and which was built by the in
telligible Moses, that is, the only-begotten Son o f God the
Father, who pitched human nature within Himself by a
union according to hypostasis.2

But the tent is also an image of the totality o f creation,
intelligible and sensible, which God the [1388A} Father as
Intellect conceived, and which the Son as Word created,
and which the Holy Spirit brought to completion. And, in
267
,
,
<
.
Ambiguum 62
JL.-/K ,
5 , ,
,
[ Kings 16 :13 ;1 Chr 11:3,12:38-40}.2
2
'
, 1
,
, .

[see Gen 32:28-30} ,
,
, ,
,
[see
Tit 2:13},
.
268
AM BIGUUM
02
turn, the tent also can be seen as an image solely o f senseperceptible nature, or solely of man as constituted o f soul
and body, or solely of the soul itself when seen in light of
its inner principle, for the tent is an image of these things
when it is contemplated in light of the inner principle that is
proper to each.
Ambiguum 62
F
rom Saint Gregorys same oration On the New Sunday:

The kingship of David is inaugurated, and not once
but twice, for first he is anointed, and afterward he is
proclaimed.1
Here, too, the anagogical interpretation o f the great David, who was a prophet and a [1388B} king, possesses many
meanings, so let us attend to the one that the teacher here
had in mind. Accordingly, David is the true, intelligible
king of Israel (who sees God), that is, Jesus Christ, who, in His
first coming, is anointed in the aspect o f His humanity,
just as the teacher says elsewhere: He anointed humanity
by His divinityhaving created the very thing that He
anointed.2 In His second and glorious manifestation, He is
and is proclaimed to be the God, Lord, and King o f all cre
ation.
269
AM BIGUA TO JO H N
Ambiguum 63
,
, ' ,
' ,
' ,
,
, , '
, ;
2
,

, ' , ,
(see 2 Cor 5:17) ' , '

,
.

,
- ,
,
ô
AM BIGU U M
63
Ambiguum 63
W , K respect to this same oration, some are puzzled,
saying: W hy did the teacher say that [1388c] the day of the
Resurrection surpasses all the feasts celebrated on earth,
and not simply human feasts, which are inspired by base
motivations, but also those celebrated in the name o f Christ
Himself and then, as if he had forgotten his own pro
nouncement, proceed to rank the New Sunday^ higher than
the Resurrection, when he said: This day is more sublime
than that one, and more marvelous than it too? From this,
one would think that the teacher is contradicting himself.1
To these concerns it must be said that the teacher him- 2
self, a few lines later in the same oration, says: These words
do not mean that you should remain permanently in the
same state, but that you should be constantly moving, im
proving, a completely new creation.2 [1388D} And just as
we know that a person who has been renewed becomes
more sublime and godlike than himself, beaming with joy
from his progress in virtue, so too must we believe that ev
ery sacred feast established for our sake becomesin us
and through usmore sublime than itself, because through
our faithful celebration the mystery signified through the
feast acquires its proper power to lead us to perfection. It
is therefore likely that the teacher said that the New Sun
day was more sublime than the sublime,3 since it is always
attaining greater sublimity' among us, and so surpasses it
self. In other words, the Resurrectionby which I mean the
First Sundaythrough the mystery' that it conceals, grants
271

,

.

3
,

, .
1
4

,

.
,
2
,
,
, ,
|/ |/ ,
.
2J2
a m b i g u u m
63
to those who spiritually celebrate this mystery [1389A}

solely a life cleansed of all fantasies related to matter,
whereas the New Sunday makes its celebrants participate in
the complete enjoyment o f divine blessings, to which the
previous Sunday had led the way

If this interpretation should seem credible to anyone, he 3
should know that the First Sunday is also said to be a type of
resurrection in virtue in accordance with our free choice,
whereas the Second is a type o f a permanent habit of mind
acquired by free choice and leading to the knowledge of per
fection. {1389B]
Again, the First Sunday is a symbol o f our future, natural 4
resurrection and incorruptibility, whereas the Second con
veys an image o f the future divinization that we shall receive
by grace. If, then, the enjoyment of blessings is more pre
cious than a habit of mind cleansed of the vices; and if a
habit o f mind possessing perfection in true knowledge is
more precious than the healthy exercise of free choice in
clining to virtue; and if the transformation in grace to God
in divinization is more precious than natural incorruptibil
ityand if, of these, the former are imaged by the First Sun
day, whereas the latter are symbolized by the Secondthen
it stands to reason that the teacher, being guided by the
Spirit, said that the New Sunday was more sublime than
the sublime Sunday of the Resurrection. [1389C}
273
Ambiguum 64
JQ
' 8 .
2
, , '
, , ,

, ,
{see 1 Cor 15:55-56}
.
Ambiguum 65
' 1 ,

,
,
, .

^.
274
AMBIGUUM 6 5
Ambiguum 64
F rom the same oration On the New Sunday:
I loathe that intimacy which passes through the air.1
Addressing himself to women, especially those who had 2
taken up monastic life, and emphatically prolonging his re
marks on the question of how they might amend their mor
als, the teacher recommends, rather gently, as it seems to
me, that female ascetics should not gaze intently at some
one from the windows o f their houses, and certainly not
at male passersby lest through such inappropriate looking
they be wounded by the sting o f death.
Ambiguum 65
F'
rom Saint Gregorys oration On Holy Pentecost:
There was need o f one day, which we received from

the age to come, which was both the eighth day
[1389D} and the first day, or rather a single and per
petual dayfor it is necessary that the Sabbath o f
souls celebrated here should reach its end there.1
275
,
,
.
,

.

.
, .

,
, , .

, ,
.
, , . ,
,
,

1
, , ,
,
2?6
AM BIGUUM
65
According to sacred Scripture, the number seven, when

taken simply as a number, by its nature contains within itself
a wealth of mystical contemplation for those who love to la
bor for divine things. For it signifies time, the age, ages, mo
tion, as well as containment, measure, limit, and providence,
and many other things when it is properly contemplated ac
cording to the principle of each. But even when it is consid
ered solely as rest, it contains [1392A] a wealth of knowl
edge initiated into mysteries. But so as not to render my
discourse onerous by going through each o f these points in
detail, let us examine that which seems to be more sublime
than the others. Those possessing perfect knowledge of di
vine realities say that there are three modes, inasmuch as
the total principle of the whole coming into being o f ratio
nal substances is seen to have the mode o f being, o f well
being, and eternal-being; and that o f being is first given to
beings by essence; that o f well-being is granted to them sec
ond, by their power to choose, inasmuch as they are selfmoved; and that of eternal-being is lavished on them third,
by grace. And the first contains potential, the second ac
tivity, and the third, rest from activity This means that the
principle of being, which by nature possesses only the po
tential for actualization, cannot in any way possess this po
tential in its fullness without the faculty o f free choice.
{1392B] That o f well-being, on the other hand, possesses the
actualization o f natural potential only by inclination o f the
will, for it does not possess this potential in its totality sep
arately from nature. That of eternal-being, finally, which
wholly contains those that precede it (that is, the potential
o f the one, and the activity of the other), absolutely does not
exist as a natural potential within beings, nor does it at all
277

. (
'
;) ,
,
,
, ' .
, ,
, , , ,
, , ,

,
.
3

, , ,
,
, ,
. 2 ,
,
,
, , , 3
,
278
AM BIGUUM
6 j
follow by necessity from the willing of free choice. (For how

is it possible for things, which by nature have a beginning
and which by their motion have an end, to possess as an
innate part o f themselves that which exists eternally and
which has neither beginning nor end?) But eternal being is a
limit, bringing a halt to nature in terms of its potential, and
to free choice in terms o f its activity, without in any way
changing the principle according to which the one and the
other exist, but establishing for all things the limit of all ages
and times. And this, [1392C} as it seems to me, is perhaps
the mystically blessed Sabbath, the great day of rest from di
vine works, which, according to the account o f the worlds
creation in Scripture, appears to have neither beginning,
nor end, nor created origin, since it is the manifestation of
realities beyond limit and measure, sequent to the motion
of whatever is limited by measure, and the infinite iden
tity of realities that are uncontained and uncircumscribed,
sequent to the quantity of things contained and circum
scribed.2
If, then, voluntary activity makes use of the potential of
nature, either according to nature or against nature, it will
receive natures limit of either well-being or ill-beingand
this is eternal being, in which the souls celebrate their Sab
bath, receiving cessation from all motion.3 The eighth and
the first, or rather, the one [1392D} and perpetual day, is the
unalloyed, all-shining presence o f God, which comes about
after things in motion have come to rest; and, throughout
the whole being of those who by their free choice have used
the principle o f being according to nature, the whole God
suitably abides, bestowing on them eternal well-being by
giving them a share in Himself, because He alone, properly
279
,4
,
,
, ,
,
.

.
.

.
, ,
.

, .
280
AM BIGUUM
speaking, is, and is good, and is eternal; but to those who

have willfully used the principle o f their being contrary to
nature, He rightly renders not well-being but eternal illbeing, since well-being is no longer accessible to those who
have placed themselves in opposition to it, and they have
absolutely no motion after the manifestation o f what was
sought, by which4 what is sought is naturally revealed to
those who seek it. {1393A}
And, again, the seventh day and Sabbath is the passage 4
through all the modes pertaining to virtue and all the prin
ciples o f knowledge pertaining to contemplation. But the
eighth day is the true transformation by grace in relation to
the beginning and cause o f whatever has been accomplished
by practice and understood by contemplation.
Thus, in turn, the seventh day and Sabbath is the dispassion that in succession follows practical philosophy under
taken according to virtue. But the eighth and the first day,
being single and perpetual, is the wisdom that comes about
after cognitive contemplation. And through a variety of
other modes, lovers of divine visions are able to apprehend
the meaning o f these things and discover many {1393B]
beautiful and true contemplations.
281
Ambiguum 66
J L / , 8
[3 Kings 18:34]

, <'> , ,
[see 3 Kings 18:33,17:21>:33_3}
2
,

.
.
, .
1 , ,
, , ',
' ', ' ', ' ', ' ', ' '.
,
2 , '<.
282
AM BIGU U M
66
Ambiguum 66
j F rom the same oration On Holy Pentecost: On how the
teacher understood the command to do it a second time, and
do it a third time as signifying the mystery o f the seventh day,
saying:
Likewise the Prophet Elijah, who stretched himself
out seven times on the son o f the <widow> from Zarephath, a gesture that breathed life into him, and the
equal number of times he drenched the piles o f cleft
wood}
When I asked the blessed elder about this,2 he said, 2
Here it is perhaps possible to assume that the teacher
speaks of the number seven in the following manner: first,
in accordance with those who are called mathematicians,3
for they say that some numbers consist o f other numbers
that have been multiplied by two or three, wdth the final ad
dition o f the number one. For example, the number sixtyfour [1393C} consists o f numbers multiplied by two, since
the first six numbers are multiplied by two, and with the ad
dition of the number one, we employ seven figures. Thus,
1 X 2 = 2,2 X 2 = 4 ,4 X 2 = 8, 8 X 2 = 16 ,16 X 2 is 32, and
32 X 2 = 64. These being multiplied in this way, the sum ap
pears to be composed o f six units, but with the final addi
tion of the number one, with which the process o f multi
plication began, the constituent units work out to seven.4
Using this same general rule, we can derive the number
283
. , ,
8-
3 Kings 18:33-34} ',

' , 3
.

' , 4 '
, ,
.
, .

, ,
.

3
.
, ,
,
.

.
284
AM BIGUUM
66
seven from the passage cited above, for Scripture says: Pour
water on it, do it a second time, and do it a third timeaccord
ingly, 1 X 2 = 2 , 2 X 3 = 6, and by adding 1 to 6, the result is 7.
They say moreover, that the number three, when contem
plated mystically, has a certain spiritual relation to the num
ber seven, in the following manner. The all-sacred, worship
ful, and all-holy Trinity [1393D] is signified by the number
three, and again by the number seven, since this number
is virgin. For among {1396A] the numbers one to ten, the
number seven neither begets nor is begotten.5The teacher
makes this quite clear in his book of poems on virginity,
where he says that the first virgin is the chaste Trinity.6
Another contemplation o f the same difficulty

Or we may understand it like this: if together with the
Holy Trinity your power of reason mystically observes its ac
tivity, by which I mean the Good, which very thing mani
fests the four general virtues, you will arrive at the number
seven.7 For by observing the Holy and all-hymned Trinity
together with its activity, we reckon up the virginal number
seven. {1396B]
285
Ambiguum 67
ip
JL j k ,
, , ,

,
. 1 , , [see Mt 14:13-21, 5:3238; M k
6:34-44, 8:1-9; Lk 9:10-17; John 6:1-13}.

2
, ,
, , , ,
.

[John 6:9, 13]. [M t 14:21} ,

, 2
3 ,
, [see Mt
14:21, 15:38},
286
AM BIGUUM
67
Ambiguum 67
F r o m the same oration On Holy Pentecost:
Jesus Himself, the pure perfection, knew how to feed
five thousand men in the desert with five loaves; and
again He knew how to feed four thousand with seven
and, in the former, after they were satisfied, there
were twelve baskets left over, whereas in the latter there
were seven baskets. None o f these details, as it seems to
me, is without a reason or unworthy o f the Spirit.1
Seeing that the preceding considerations have exercised 2
the mind at length in the habit of contemplation, let us
not, if you agree, overburden it with a multitude o f words,
since henceforth it should be able scientifically to receive
the contemplation o f divine realities with greater concision.
Thus, the five barley loaves are an allusion to the principles
o f natural contemplation that are readily accessible to us.
T he five thousand men who were nourished by them indicate
those who move closely around nature, {1396C} but who
have not yet been completely purified o f their tendency to
be conditioned by the passionate and irrational part of the
soul, which is the sense that these words present to those
who contemplate them, inasmuch as the loaves were made
from barley, which is a form of nourishment common
to beasts and men, and the men were with their women
and children, which plainly indicates that they were not
287
.
,

,
, .
'
3
4 ,
,
. , ,
,
. , ,
,

.
.
.

5 , ,
.
2 88
AM BIGUUM
67
completely estranged from the desire for pleasure and the

infantile imperfection o f their thoughts. The desert is this
world, in which the Word o f God, by spiritually distributing
the principles of nature to those who through natural con
templation are in motion around the Divine, grants them to
be completely satisfied with good things, which is indicated
by the baskets of leftovers, which were twelve [1396D} in
number.
Contemplation of the number twelve
The number twelve indicates the intelligible principles
pertaining to time and nature, since it is brought to comple
tion by the addition o f five and seven. For time is sevenfold,
moving as it does in a cyclical manner, and possesses a natu
ral affinity for motion, maintaining the extremes at an equal
distance from the mean. {1397A} Nature, on the other hand,
is fivefold, a number to which it is naturally ordered, both
on account o f senses, which are divided into five, and be
cause the form that nature takes from what is simply called
matter is further divided into four.2 For nature is nothing
other than either matter with form, or informed matter, be
cause when form is added to matter it produces nature.3

Or the number twelve signifies the understanding of ereated beings and ages, insofar as they are subject to motion
and circumscription, and are marked by attributes o f quid
dity quality, and mode o f existence. For everything that is in
289
AM BIG UA TO JO H N
,6
, .
yap ,
, .
, ,
, , '

.

,
.
. , . ,
, , , 7 ,
.

,
-
290
A M B IG U l'M
67
motion and has been created is subject to a beginning, and

for this reason {1397B] is absolutely subject to time, even if
it is a form of time not measurable by motion. For every cre
ated thing has a beginning of its being, since there was a
time when it began to exist, and it is subject to extension in
time, from the moment when it began to exist. If, then, ev
ery created thing exists and is in motion, then it is absolutely
subject to nature and time: to the one on account o f its exis
tence, and to the other on account of its motion, and it is
through the combination of these two, as explained above,
that the reckoning of twelve is completed.
Another contemplation
Or it signifies ethical, natural, and theological philosophy, since it is the yield o f four, five, and three. For ethical
philosophy, which is the correct form o f moral conduct in
ones deeds, is fourfold on account of [1397C} the four gen
eral virtues. Natural philosophy is fivefold, for the reason
mentioned above, that is, the natural division o f sense per
ception into five senses. Mystical theology, finally, is three
fold, on account o f the three, holy, consubstantial hypos
tases of the all-holy Monad, or in which three is the holy
Monad, or to speak more strictly which three are the holy
Monad.
Or it signifies the universal and most general form o f 6
virtue and knowledgethe former, since in this life it is
attained through the four virtues, and the latter, since it is
291
, 8
9 ,
.

7
,
, ,
10 ,
.11

.
, 12

.

,
' , .
,
.

292
AM BIGUUM
67
indicated by the number eight, which mystically points to

the more divine state of the things o f the age to come, and
from the combination o f these the number twelve is at
tained. [1397D]
Or it signifies the things of the present and the things o f
the future, since things present naturally admit of the num
ber four, which is elemental and material, whereas future
things admit o f the number eight, which is mystically con
templated among themsince it transcends the property o f
seven peculiar to timeand from these the number twelve
is completed. {1400A}
Or the number twelve clearly indicates the threefold 8
principles of providence and judgment in respect of intel
ligible things and sensible things. For each of these in it
self admits of three principles in order for it to be precisely
what it iswhich, after much study of the Scriptures, be
came quite clear to the highest initiates and initiators into
divine realities. Thus when, by themselves, the threefold
universal principles of beings multiply by three the four be
ings in which they are contemplatedor the opposite,
namely, when they themselves are multiplied by four by the
things in which they are found, they produce the number
twelve. For if beings have substance, potency, and activity, it
is obvious that the principle of their existence is threefold.
And if providence binds these three principles together,
293
, ,
.
,
,
,
,

.

9

.
,
. ,
13
.
, olov,
,
,
14 .
,
, , ,
,
,
294
AM BIGUUM
67
clearly in order for beings to be what they are, then it fol

lows that the principle of providence must itself be three
fold. [1400B] But if any o f these principles is damaged or
perverted from things occurring in the past, the present, or
the future, then judgment will act to redress and punish evil,
for judgment itself possesses a threefold principle of con
templation, according to which it circumscribes the sub
stance, potency, and activity of beings, while permanently
preserving its own proper boundlessness.
Or, again, the number twelve signifies the perfect under- 9
standing, as far as this is possible for us, of the knowledge of
a cause and its effects. For when {1400C} the dyad is added
to the decad it produces twelvebut the decad is Jesus,
the Lord and God of all, who, without going outside Him
self in His processions from the Monad, returns to Him self
in a manner befitting the Monad.4 For the decad is also a
monad, since it is the definition o f things defined, the ambit
of things in motion, and the limit o f all arithmetical sums.
And dyadic, again, is the structure o f all beings after G od,
namely, all sensible beings, which, being combined of mat
ter and form, constitute a dyad; and intelligible beings, too,
since they are a combination of substance and substantial
qualities that give their substance form. For there exists ab
solutely no created thing which stricdy speaking is sim
ple, since it is not simply this or that, but possesses a
constitutive and determinative difference, which is consid
ered with it, as in an underlying substance, constituting it as
a particular thing, and clearly distinguishing it from every
295
AM BIGUA TO JO H N
.
.
15
'
.
,

, , '
,
. , 16
, ,
,
,
, , ,
.17 18
. ,
,19
,
' [Gen 1:26}
,
{Gen 1:27}
{Gal 3:26, 28].
296
AM BIGU U M
67
other thing. Thus, no thing, in any way at all, that substan

tially possesses something considered with it in the mani
festation of its proper existence can strictly speaking be
simple.5{1400D]
Or, again, the number twelve alludes in a rather hidden 10
way to the divine essence and its active energy. The divine
essence is manifested through the number three, since it is
praised as a Trinity on account of its trihypostatic existence,
for the Monad is a Trinity, [1401A} being perfect in perfect
hypostases, that is, in the mode o f its existence; and the
Trinity is truly a Monad in the principle of its essence, that
is, in the principle of its being. As for the active energy, it
is indicated by the number six, for this is th e only perfect
and complete number within the decad, being constituted
from its own parts, and containing both general and unequal
numbersby which I mean even and odd numbersand
thus it alone is perfect among perfect things (in respect of
the principle according to which they exist), efficiently pro
ducing and protecting them, preserving th e ir essences and
maintaining their unequal qualities.6 For t h e means that
move midway between extremes are unequal when com
pared to the ever-moving repose of the extrem es. Let me of
fer one example of what I mean, from w h ich those who are
assiduous in learning might understand th e meaning of all
the others. An extreme is: And God said, L e t us make man
according to our image and [1401B} likeness. A. mean is: And
God made man, male andfemale He made them . Again, an ex
treme is: In Christ Jesus there is neither male n o r female. That
297
,
, ,
,
, , ,
,
{see Gen 1:31-2:1]
(
) .

8 , [see Mt 14:20; Lk 9:17; John 6:12},

,
,
,
,
,
,
.
'
{see M t 15:37-38;
M k 8:20] , , , ,
,
298
AM BIG UUM
67
these extremes and means are unequalsince the latter

have male and female, whereas the former do notis due
to the productive and containing power o f the divine energy
I think that the supremely wise Moses, having mystically
learned o f this energy, in his goodness subtly disclosed it to
the rest o f mankind, when he wrote that God created the
whole world in six days. Now i f to this creative energy, fol
lowing the sequence and order, we suitably reckon the prov
idence and judgment o f beings as part o f creation (for they
are contained within it), we arrive at the most complete
number twelve.7 {140 iC]
Contemplation o f the baskets
By the baskets in which the leftovers were placed, Scripture n
is referring to the dispensation o f divine discipline to those
who are spiritually nourished on the intelligible principles
mentioned above, for they have not yet advanced beyond
disciplinary instruction, which fittingly establishes what is
useful, and stipulates a rather painful regimen for those be
ing disciplined, which we are given to understand by the ma
terial from which wicker baskets are constructed, which by
its nature is hard-edged and sharp.
Contemplation o f the seven loaves

As for the seven loaves of the four thousand men, [1401D] 12
I think they are a figure of initiation into the teaching of the
law, that is, into the more divine principles inherent within
this teaching, which are mystically distributed by the Word
299
AM BIG UA TO JO H N
,
.20

3

[see Mt 15:32; Mk 8:2} ,
,
,
,

. [see Mt
15:37; M k 8:20} (
,

)
,
21
[see M t 10:1; Lk 4:36, 9 :>:19}

300
AM BIGUUM
to those who abide with Him for three days, in other words,
to those who patiently endure the toil that procures the
light o f knowledge surrounding ethical, natural, and theo
logical philosophy
Another contemplation o f the three days

Or the three days may perhaps be an allusion to the natural, written, and spiritual law, since [1404A} each of these
grants the illumination o f its more spiritual principle to
those who love to labor zealously for it, who nobly and truly
endure three days of hunger for divine things, abiding
blamelessly with God the Word, and so receive mystical
nourishment, which contains in a single identity the sym
bols o f victory and dominion, evident in the excess that re
mains after satiety For the seven baskets are woven of palm
frondswhich are a symbol o f victory and dominion, as
well as o f staunch resistance on behalf o f the truth, when
battered by gusts of violent windsthese baskets, I say, are
a sign that those who have eaten from them are victors over
all evil and ignorance, inasmuch as they have received from
God the Word invincible power over passions and demons.8
13
Contemplation o f the number o f

the four thousand men
And the very number o f those who were nourished by
these [1404B] spiritual principles is itself a clear witness o f
their true perfection, since it contains the four general
301
14
, ,
,
, .
, ,
,
,
, ,
.
,
,
,
.
'
5
[see M t 15:37; M k
8:20} ,
, ,
,

.

, .
302
AM BIGUUM 67
monads. O f these, the first is the primal monad, the second

monad is the decad, the third monad is the century, and the
fourth monad is the millenary.9 For each of these, with the
exception of the first monad, is both a monad and a decad.10
It is a monad with respect to what comes after it, for it is
added to itself, and by a tenfold multiplication it becomes
a decad. And each is a decad, since it contains the sum of
the units that precede it. And the millenary, when multi
plied by four, yields 4,000. Thus the primal monad is a sym
bol o f mystical theology, the second is a type o f divine dis
pensation and goodness, the third is an image o f virtue and
{1404C} knowledge, and the fourth is the manifestation of
the universal and more divine transformation o f beings.
Anothercontemplationofthe numberseven
The number seven, associated with the baskets, when contemplated in a manner different from the previous one, is
said to be indicative of wisdom and prudence. O f wisdom,
since it moves intelligibly in a threefold manner around its
cause; and of prudence, since, on account o f the cause, it
moves rationally in a fourfold manner around the beings
that come after the cause, and which are around it. Accord
ing to that great teacher, neither o f the two has been
brought into being by the Lord without a reason, or in a
manner unworthy of the Spirit.11 [1404D]
303
15
Ambiguum 68
,
,
{see Cor
12:4-11, Bo-S1!
2

, ,
{see 1 Cor 14:1-5]
,

, , ,

,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,

. 8, , , { Cor
304
A M B IG U U M 68
Ambiguum 68
F
rom Saint Gregorys same oration On Holy Pentecost:

And there is a difference of gifts, which stands in need
o f yet another gift for the discernment o f what is bet
ter.1
The difference of gifts, which stands in need of yet an- 2

other gift for discernment, according to that great teacher,
is prophecy, I think, and speaking in tongues. For prophecy
needs the gift of the discernment of spirits, so that it can
be known which, and whence, and whereto, and to what
end, [1405A] and of what sort o f spirit, and for what reason
the prophecy is being utteredlest the speaker prove to be
nothing more than a babbler, and the prophecy turn out to
be nothing more than arbitrary noises emitted by a dam
aged mind, or some sort of deliberate effort on the part of
the alleged prophet, who shrewdly prophesies about certain
things by drawing conclusions from his variegated experi
ence and in accordance with natural principles; or lest it be
generated by the evil and demonic spirit, as in the case of
Montanos and those like him, who tell absurd stories in the
form of prophecies;2 or lest it perhaps be someone moved
by vainglory to arrogate to himself the utterances of others,
speaking and propounding things which he himself did not
bring forth, winning praise through his lies, a pseudo-sage
shamelessly posing as the spurious father o f orphaned words
and ideas. This is why the holy apostle says: Let two or three
prophets [1405B] speak, and let the others discern what they say.
305
AM BIGU A TO JO H N
14:29}. ;
.
, ,
, ,

, ,

. , ' ,
, ,
{ Cor 14:23}; , { Cor 14:28}.
'

,
. ' , .
306
a m b i g u u m
68
Who are these others? Obviously those who possess the

gilt o f discerning the spirits. For, as I said, prophecy needs
discernment of spirit, so that the prophecy might be known,
believed, and approved; and the gift of tongues needs the
gift o f interpretation, lest those listening deem the speaker
a madman, since they are not able to follow what is being
said. For i f the great apostle says, you speak in tongues, and an
unbeliever or outsider enters, w ill they not say that you are mad?
Consequently, if there is no one on hand to interpret, he or
ders them to keep silent rather than speak in tongues. As for
the teachers phrase, for the discernment of what is bet
ter, those whose minds are enlightened by the sacred Scrip
tures say that [1405C] the gift of prophecy and speaking in
tongues is superior to the gift that is needed to discern and
explain them, that is, the discernment o f spirits and inter
pretation. Knowing this, the teacher said: for the discern
ment o f what is better.
307
Ambiguum 69
f 1 , "
.
2

, ,
!.
,
. , !,
, ,
.
Ambiguum 70
- ,

.
308
AM BIGU U M
70
Ambiguum 69
P rom Saint Gregorys oration On Heron the Philosopher:
Complete predicates and incomplete predicates.1
According to the grammarians, a complete predicate is
a statement composed of a noun and a verb constituting a
complete thought, such as, for example, John walks. An
incomplete predicate, on the other hand, is a statement
composed o f a noun and a verb that does not constitute a
complete thought, such as, John is concerned with. Thus
if someone says, John walks, [1405D] no additional clause
is required, but when he says, John is concerned with, he
has neglected to say what it is that John is concerned with.2
Ambiguum 70
F rom Saint Gregorys Funeral Oration for Saint Basil:
In no thing, therefore, from all things, is it possible to
fail to find in one such from all.1
309
A M B I G U A TO JO H N
,
, ,
,1
.

, ,
. , ,
, , ,
,
,
, . 2

, ,
, , ,
, , ,
3 ,
, , ),
, , ,

, ,
.
,
,
3
AM BIGUUM
70
Whatever good2 thing a person approves of, it is in re- 2

spect of that same thing {1408A} that he assuredly also
makes progress, that is, increase, by which one makes prog
ress; and he obviously delights in, and is encouraged by the
good things said about it. He is delighted, for he increases
it in his soul, as a strongly desired object; and he is encour
aged to progress still further, for hearing it praised gives him
greater incitement. For, the teacher says, when I have
learned the praises of men, I have a distinct idea o f their
progressions3which is to say, if I know the praises of
things, I also know quite clearly the progressions, that is,
the increases in virtue, o f the men who approve o f them.
In no thing, therefore obviously from all the things that
are praisedis it possible to fail to find increase in any
one such person who from all such persons takes delight
in these things. Or, since the teacher had previously men
tioned three thingshimself, orations, and those who
praise {1408BJ virtuehe used these words to refer inclu
sively to all three, as is the habit o f rhetors, and then pro
ceeded to their unfolding, adapting his arguments to each of
the three. He began the explanation first of all with himself,
then worked his way through the middle by treating o f those
who praise virtue, and completed his argument by touching
on orations themselves, because the exemplary subject of
Saint Basil was also relevant to him, as a teacher and deliv
erer o f the sermon; and it was desirable to those w ho love
virtue, that is, to those who praise it, since they desire to
know the modes of progress in virtue through imitation;
and it was no less a fitting subject for orations themselves,
since they manifest the beautiful things of virtue. T hus, ev
ery man, whose life is praiseworthy in the sight o f G o d , and
especially the life of the great Basil, whether orators are able
,
,
, ,
,
.
Ambiguum 71
JL ,
, ,1 , .

, ,
, ,
[Ps 4(42):7' , ,
,
, ,
312
AM BIGU U M
71
to encompass the whole of his virtue, and set it forth as an

image, living and inspiring {1408C} to those who are enam
ored of it, or whether the magnitude of his virtue is beyond
their grasp, it will not be possible to fail to find in one from
all (that is, from the oration, the orator, and the listener)
something by which one might not suitably acquire some
thing good, just as it has been earlier investigated with
greater precision.
Ambiguum 71
F
rom Saint Gregorys poems, on the words:

The sublime Word plays in all kinds o f forms, judging
His world as He wishes, on this side and on that.1
When the great David, by faith alone, spiritually thrust 2

his intellect through the latches, as it were, of visible reali
ties, and gazed upon intelligible realities, he received from
the [1408D] Divine Wisdom a certain cognitive mark of the
mysteries that are accessible to human beings then, as it
seems to me, he said: Abyss calls to abyss at the sound o f Your
cataracts. With these words he may perhaps be indicating
that every intellect in a state o f contemplation, on account
o f its invisible nature and the depth and multitude of its
thoughts, is like an abyss, for after it has passed through the
whole orderly arrangement o f visible things and finds it
self in the region o f intelligible realities, and when, again
3D

, ,
, ,
,
{Ps 4 i(4 2)7 i>
,

,
[Ps
4(42):6},

,
,
,

[
Cor 1:25}, , , , , .

,
- [ Cor 1:25]
,

.

34
AM BIGUUM
71
by faith, it transcends even the majesty o f these things by

means o f a forceful motion, so that it comes to stand still in
itself, {1409A] utterly fixed and immobile (on account of its
passage beyond all things), it is then that, as is fitting, it calls
to the Divine Wisdomwhich to our knowledge is really
and truly an unfathomable abyssand asks that it might be
given, not of course the divine cataracts themselves, but their
sound., which means that it asks to receive a certain cognitive
mark of faith concerning the modes and principles o f divine
providence governing the universe. Through this gift, the
intellect will be able to remember God from the land o f Jordan
andHermon, where the great and awesome mystery o f the di
vine descent o f God the Word was accomplished through
the flesh, a mystery in which the truth of right faith in God
was given to human beings, and which, insofar as it utterly
transcends the whole order and power o f nature, was called
thefoolishness and weakness o f God by {1409B} the divine Paul,
the great apostle, who is both an initiate and initiates others
in the divine and secretly known wisdomand I believe
that he called it such on account of its surpassing wisdom
and power, whereas the great and godly-minded Gregory
characterized this mystery as a kind of game, on account of
its surpassing prudence.2
For the one says that thefoolishness o f God is wiser than men,
and the weakness o f God is stronger than men, and the other that
the sublime Word plays in all kinds o f forms, judging His
world as He wishes, on this side and on that. Each one indi
cates a divine possession by the privation of what among us
are the greatest affirmations; and each, by the negations
of our realities, makes a positive affirmation of divine reali
ties. For among us foolishness, weakness, and childish play
315
, , , ,

.
,
, , 2
,
.

.
(
),
,
,
,
3 ,

,
, ,4 , ,
{Ps
65(66)13}-

,

[see Mt 19:26}
.5
36
AM BIGUUM 71
are privationsthe first of wisdom, the second of power,

and the latter of prudencebut when they are predicated
o f God they clearly imply His surpassing excess of wisdom,
[1409C] power, and prudence. Thus, if something is said of
us by way of privation, in the case of God it is rightly un
derstood as indicating possession, and rice versa, so that if
something is said of us by way of possession, it is most fit
ting in the case of God to understand it as indicating priva
tion through excess. For the surpassing excess of divine re
alities, expressed by us apophatically as privations, are but
remote approximations to their true meaning and form. But
if this is true, as indeed it seems quite likely to be (for divine
things never coincide with human things), it follows that
the foolishness and weakness of God, according to the
holy apostle Paul, and the game o f God, according to Greg
ory the wondrous and great teacher, signify the mystery of
the divine [1409D} Incarnation, since in a manner beyond
being it transcends the whole order and arrangement of ev
ery nature, power, possession, and activityand it was this
very same mystery that the most divine David beheld in his
intellect from afar, and was instructed in by the divine Spirit,
and so, as if explaining in advance the surpassing posses
sion o f God (expressed by the apostle through priv ation), he
said (crying out to the Judeans, as I distinctly recall): Because
o f the multitude o f Yourpower, Your enemies shall lie to You. For
every' man is surely G ods enemy and obviously a bar who
ignorantly and impiously confines God within the law of na
ture, and who cannot bear to believe that God, while re
maining impassibly beyond nature, essentially came to be
among things subject to nature, and worked things accord
ing to nature, since He is able to do all things. {1412A]
3r i

, ,
,

{Ps 41(42)7]
,

.
,
, .
,
.
6
;

,
( , ),
,
,
7 , , , , . ,
, 8
38
AM BIGU U M
71
In this way, then, pursuing one line o f thought, my discourse has ventured to interpret conjecturally the fool
ishness and weakness and game of God. Together with
these, by way o f a digression, examples were brought for
ward in a preliminary" exposition of the difficult passage
cited at the outset, so that we understood the phrase, abyss
calls to abyss at the sound o f the divine cataracts, as signifying the
cognitive intellect calling to wisdom, and alluding to a cer
tain small informing mark of the mysteries o f the divine and
ineffable descent of God. For the name abyss is also given
to the place o f the abyss, and the place o f divine wisdom is
the purified intellect. Thus, owing to its receptive capacity,
the intellect is given the name abyss, but only by conven
tion, since the same name is also given to Wisdom, to whom
it belongs by nature. {1412B]

Considering the proposed difficulty in a different manner, with the help of divine grace, by means of conjectures
and not categorical assertions (for by the one we remain
within due limits, but the other is impetuous), we make bold
to treat of the words under consideration, saying that what
the great teacher called the game of God is perhaps the con
spicuous position o f the mean terms, which maintains
an equal distance from the extremes on account of its fluid
and mutable state of rest, or better, on account of it being a
flowing that remains at rest, to put it more suitably And this
is a paradox: to behold a state o f rest that is forever flow
ing and being carried away, and a flowing that is unmoved,
which has been {1412C} providentially devised by God for
319
, , ,

.

,

{see Hbr :],
' .

,
; ; , , {Eel 1:9}'
,
, .
6
,9 ,
, , ,
,
,
.
320
A M B I G U l M 7
the betterment of the things that come under His dispen

sation, since it has the power to make wise those who are
taught by it, inspiring them to hope that they wall depart
from here for another place entirely,3 and to believe that the
end of the mystery concerning this motion that affects
them is that through their inclination to G od they will cer
tainly be divinized by grace. By mean terms I mean the
plenitude o f visible realities that are now around man, or
within which man finds himself, while by the extremes 1
mean the substance of future realities that are not visible but
will without fail come to be around manrealities that have
properly and truly been created and have come into being
in accordance with the ineffable and primal purpose and ra
tionale of the divine goodness. In the same way, when the
wise Ecclesiastes, with the great and clear eye of his soul,
looked beyond the coming into being of visible and tran
sitory things, {1412D} and beheld, as it were, the vision of
what had been truly created and brought into being, he said:
What is this that has been brought into being? It is the same as that
which w ill come into being. And what is this that has been created?
It is the same as that which w ill be created. He clearly had in
mind the first things and the last things, inasmuch as they
are the same things and truly exist, but of the things in the
middle,4 which pass away, he makes no mention here what
soever.
Indeed it was after the teacher had spoken rather bril- 6
Handy about the natures of various animals and minerals,
and, to speak briefly, about the many things that are ob
served among beings more generally, that he said, The sub
lime Word plays in {1413A] all kinds of forms, judging His
world as he wishes, on this side and on that. Is this not then
321
, ; '
, {see Ps 134)2 , 52(53);23* ,
, ,

[Lk 16:23-26},
.

,

,
,

.
7
, , ,
,

. ,
, ,
, ,
, ,
,
322
AM BIGUUM
71
the same thing that he says in his oration On Holy Pente

cost, when he speaks about divinity and created nature? As
long as each nature remains in its proper domain, the one
atop its lofty height, the other in its lowliness, Gods good
ness remains unmixed, and His love for mankind is not com
municated, and there is a great chasm in the middle that can
not be crossed, which not only separates the rich man from
Lazarus and the longed-for bosoms o f Abraham, but also
separates the whole of nature that has come into being and
is in a state o f flux from that which is uncreated and at rest.5
The same and similar things are said by the great and di
vinely inspired Dionysios the Areopagite: One must make
bold to say even this, on behalf o f truth, that the very Au
thor of all things, through the beauty goodness, and over
flow of His intense love for all things, goes out o f Himself
[1413B} in His providences for all beings, and is, as it were,
spellbound by goodness, love, and longing, and is led down
from His position above all and beyond all, to be in all ac
cording to an ecstatic and supraessential power which is yet
inseparable from Himself.6
From the meaning of these words it might perhaps, as I 7
said, be possible to expand upon this brief interpretation o f
the phrase, The sublime Word plays, and so suggest the
following. We know that parentsif I may use examples we
are familiar with to illustrate things that are above uspro
viding their children with opportunities to shake off their
sluggishness, frequently condescend to their level, and thus
we see them indulgently taking part in childish games, such
as playing with nuts and knucklebones with them,7 or show
ing them [1413C] many-colored flowers and colorfully dyed
clothing to beguile their senses, thereby attracting their
323
,
,
,
,

, , ,

, ,
, ,
,

,
, ,
10
.
8

,
,
, .

,
.
324
AM BIGUUM
71
attention and filling them with amazement, for young chil

dren have no other kind of work or occupation. But even
tually their parents send them to school, after which they
converse with them in a more mature manner, and allow
them the use of their own things. Thus, perhaps the teacher
is saying that God, who is superior to all, by leading us
through the nature o f visible creations, as if it were a kind of
story, seeks to amaze us or attract our attention by the sight
and knowledge of these things, as if we were no different
than children, after which He directs us to the contempla
tion of the more spiritual principles within these things, and
finally leads us by way of theology up to the [1413D] more
mystical knowledge o f Himself, so far as this is possible
a knowledge which in the initial stages is purified from all
varied appearances and compounds, whether o f form and
quality or shape and quantity, found in either numerical
multiplicity or bodily mass, and so on to the end o f contem
plationand this is called playing by the God-bearing
Gregory, and beguiling and going out o f Himself by the
godly-minded Dionysios.
Indeed, when things that are present and visible are com- 8
pared and considered alongside things that properly and
truly exist, and [1416A} which will be manifested at a later
stage, the former seem to be but a childs game, and even
something rather less than that. For when the arrangement
o f present, visible things is compared to the truth o f what in
fact are divine and archetypical realities, it will not even be
reckoned to exist in the eyes o f those who have been made
worthy to behold (as far as possible) all the splendor of di
vine beautyin the same way, when a childs plaything is
compared to anything true and real, it is not reckoned as
having actual existence.
325
'
9

, ,
, ,
, ,
,
,
,
,
,

.
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
.

, .
326
AM BIGUUM
71
Another contemplation o f the same

Or perhaps the mutability of the material objects which 9
we hold in our hands, which shift things around and are
themselves shifted around in various ways, [1416B] having
no solid foundation, save for the first intelligible principle,
in accordance with which they are carried along wisely and
providentially, and carry us along with themand whereas
it might be thought that they can be controlled by us, they
slip through our fingers far more frequently than we con
trol them, and they rather almost repel the desire of those
among us who insist on clinging to them, and so they nei
ther maintain their hold over us nor are they held by us,
since the only stable characteristic their nature possesses is
their state of flux and their instabilityperhaps this, I say,
was fittingly called Gods game by the teacher, seeing that it
is through these things that God leads us to what is really
real and can never be shaken.
Another contemplation o f the same {1416C]
And if we ourselves, in accordance with the prevailing se- 10
quence of our nature, are now born like the rest o f the living
creatures on the earth, after which we become children, and
after w'hich, in the manner of quickly fading flowers, our
youth withers into the wrinkles o f old age, and dying we
are transferred to another fifethen not without reason are
we said to be the plaything of God by that God-bearing
teacher. For this present life, when compared to the arche
type o f the divine and true fife that is to come, is a childs
toy, than which no other such toy could be more insubstan-
327
"
11 ,
, , '
, ,
[see Job 20:8}, [see Wis
5:11}, [see Wis 5:10],
, |Ja 4:14} [see Hos 13:3}!
[see Job 14:2; 1 Pt
1:24}, , '
, [Ps 02(03):5],
.
{Epilogue}
11
'1

, , . , .
\|/ 1
,
,
328
e p i l o g u e
trial. The teacher states this much more clearly in the funeral
oration for his brother Kaisarios, when he says: Such is our
life, brothers, o f we who live only briefly: a sort of game
played upon the earth. Not having existed, [1416D] we wrere
brought into being, and having been brought into being, we
are dissolved. We are a dream that does not last, a phantom
that cannot be grasped, the flight o f a bird that passes and is
gone, a ship passing through the sea and leaving no trace, dust,
vapor, morning dew, a flower that sprouts up and in a mo
ment is witheredman, his days are like grass, he blossoms like
theflower of thefield, as the divine David aptly said when he
reflected on our w eakness.8[1417A}
[Epilogue]
' X hese, then, to the best of my abilities, are my responses n
to those passages in the most divine orations of Gregory,
our great father and teacher, that you, most blessed ones,
found perplexing, and urged me to address. Yielding obedi
ently to your wishes, as was only right, I have spoken conjec
turally and not by way o f assertions. For my intellect is
hardly capable o f scaling the height of the great and lofty
mind o f our godly-minded teacher, since it continues to
be woundedand voluntarily at thatby the arrows of the
passions, and takes greater delight in being scarred by
the vices than it does in being cleansed by the graces o f the
329
AM BIGUA TO JO H N
,
.

, ,
, ( ' )
,
; , .
(

),
, ,
,
, ,
,
.
, ,
.
330
e p i l o g u e
virtues, because its long association with evil has made it a

habitual lover o f sin. And if anything that I have said should
appear to you to have any value for the purpose at hand, and
not to have fallen completely short of the truth, then the
thanks are due to God,1 who illumined my stunted intelli
gence (a miracle indeed), {1417B] which creeps along low to
the ground,2 and who granted me the commensurate power
of expression, so that I might express the proper measure
of my thoughts. Thanks are also due to you who commis
sioned <this work> and whose prayers assisted in bringing
the whole to completion. If, however, these things are ei
ther incorrect or imperfect, and I have wandered from the
truth, either wholly or partiallyhere I beseech you with
the words of the great theologian Dionysiosmay it be of
your loving-kindness to correct him who unwillingly is igno
rant, and to impart a word to him who wishes to learn, and
to vouchsafe assistance to him who has not power in him
self, and to heal him who, not willingly, is sick.- Thus, to
gether with all your other blessings, or rather before them
all, you will preside over a precious offering, more venerable
than every sacrifice, namely, loving-kindness to God, who in
heaven and on earth is glorified by all creation, {1417C} and
who asks of us but a single sacrifice: that we love one an
other.
331
Abbreviations
For
t h e works of
M a x im o s
A m b = Ambtgua to Thomas and John

C T = Capita theologica et oeconomica
Lrd P r = Commentary on the L o rds Prayer
M yst = Alystagogy
Opusc. = Opusctda theologica etpolemica
prol.John = Prologue to the Amhigua toJohn
prol. Thom. = Prologue to the Ambigua to Thomas
Ps 59 Commentary on Psalm $9
Pyrr = Disputation with Pyrrhos
Q D = J uaestiones et dubia
Q Thal
Quaestiones ad Thalassium
Q T h p = ipuaesliones ad Theopcmptum
For
CH
th e works of
io n ysio s the
On the Celestial Hierarchy
D N = On the D ivine Names

E F i = On the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy
M T = On M ystical Theology
333
reo pagite
ABBREVIATIO N S
F or
t h e works o f
P la t o
Rep = Republic
Theaet = Theaetetus
Tim = Timaeus
For
t h e w o r k s of
P lo tin us
En = Enneads
F or
t h e w o r k s of
r isto tle
A n = D eAnim a (On the Soul)

A nPr = Prior Analytics
Cat = Categories
FIA = History o f Animals
Int = On Interpretation
M et = Metaphysics
Phys = Physics
Top = Topics
Other
abbreviatio n s
A C O = Acta conciliorum oecumenicorum

C A G = Commentaria inAristotelem Graeca
C C S G = Corpus Christianorum. Series Graeca
C P G = Clavis patrum graecorum
C S E L = Corpus Scriptorum ecclesiasticorum latmorum
GCS
D ie griechischen christlichen Schriftsteller
334
ABBREVIATIO N S
G N O = Gregorii Nysseni Opera

L C L = Loeb Classical Library
Or. = Oration
Orr. = Orations
PG = Patrologia Graeca
SC = Sources chretiennes
SVF = Stoicorum veterumfragmenta
In the notes to the translation, the works of Maximos are

cited only by their abbreviated titles, and are not preceded
by Maximos ; thus: see QThal 45 (CCSG 7:153); Pyrr (PG
9i:288D); Letter 2 (PG 90:393c); etc.
The works o f Gregory the Theologian are cited by ora
tion number and section, followed by volume, page, and line
number from the SC edition. Thus, Gregory the Theolo
gian, Or. 39.13 (SC 358:176,11. 8-9), refers to a passage from
oration 39, section 13, which can be found in SC volume 358,
p. 176, lines 8-9. PG is used for works by Gregory not avail
able in SC.
The works o f Dionysios the Areopagite are cited by ab
breviated title, chapter, section, page, and line number from
the Berlin edition, followed by the corresponding PG refer
ence. Thus, D N 2.9 (133, 11. 89; 648A), is a reference to a
passage from On the Divine Names, chapter 2, section 9,
which can be found on p. 133, lines 89 in the Berlin edition,
as well as PG volume 3, column 648, section A.
335
Note on the Text
The study o f Maximos the Confessor has long been im

peded by the lack of a critical edition of the Ambigua. The
complexity o f a work like the Ambigua, and the diversity o f
the manuscripts and other witnesses to the text, poses nu
merous challenges and difficulties for the editor and transla
tor. I do not pretend to have said the last word, but merely
to have improved the standard text in J.-P. Migne, Patrologia
Graeca 91 (Paris, i860) by expanding the base of the edition
as described below.
The works o f Maximos the Confessor in PG 90-91 have
for the most part been reprinted from the first two volumes
o f a projected three-volume edition by Francois Combefis,
published in Paris in 1675. Combefis died before he was able
to publish the third volume, which was to contain the Am
bigua to Thomas and the Ambigua to John, for which P G re
prints the edition of Franz Ohler, xvhich appeared in 1857.
Ohlers edition is a transcription o f a single Greek manu
script, Gudianus graecus 39, dated to the thirteenth or four
teenth century, which he collated with an earlier, partial edi
tion of the Ambigua by Thomas Gale, published in 1681.2
The PG editors introduced various emendations and errors
not found in Ohler, and these are cited in the Notes to the
Text.
337
NOTE
ON TH E T E X T
In 1972, Edouard Jeauneau published a critical edition of

Ambiguum 42 as an appendix to his edition o f Eriugenas
Commentary on the Gospel o f John (SC 180:390-94). In 2002,
Bart Janssens published a meticulous critical edition of
the Ambigua to Thomas (CCSG 48), which I have consulted
but not reproduced. The text of the Ambigua that appears
in this present volume is based on the manuscripts and
other witnesses listed below. Variant readings are given for
the Ambigua to John but not the Ambigua to Thomas, for
which interested readers can consult the edition of Janssen.
The format of the present series does not allow for a full list
o f variants, only the most important, which have been
noted.
Thanks to the vagaries of history, the oldest surviving
witness to the text o f the Ambigua to John is not a Greek
manuscript, but a ninth-century Latin translation made by
John Eriugena, an Irish philosopher resident in the Carolingian court. At the request of Charles the Bald, Eriugena
translated the works o f Dionysios the Areopagite into Latin,
having at his disposal a manuscript that had been given as
a gift to the court by Byzantine ambassadors in 827. Eri
ugena completed the translation between 860 and 862, af
ter which, having obtained copies o f the major works of
Maximos, he spent the next two years translating them into
Latin. He translated first the Ambigua toJohn (between 862
and 864), and then the Questions to Thalassios (between 864
and 866). Because the oldest surviving Greek manuscripts
containing the Ambigua to John are from the eleventh cen
tury, Eriugenas translation is the oldest surviving witness to
the text as a whole. Eriugena was, moreover, an extremely
literal translator, and his work is o f the highest importance
338
N O T E ON T H E T E X T
for establishing the text of the Ambigia toJohn. I have there

fore been greatly helped by the excellent critical edtion by
Edouard Jeauneau, Maximi confessoris Ambigua ad lohannem
iuxta Iohannis Scotti Eriugenae latinam interpretationem, CCSG
18 (Tumhout, 1988).
D
irect
itn esses
A = Angelicasgraecus 120; n th century

V = Vaticanus graecus 1502; 12th century
C = Vaticanus graecus 504; 12th century
D = Vaticanus graecus 507; 14th century
P = Athos, Panteleimon 548; 15th century
Z = Barberini graecus 587; 16th century
I n d irect W
itn esses
Va = Vaticanus graecus 2020; 10 th century

B a = Athos, Vatopaidi 32; 15th century
lb = Athos, Iviron 386; 16 th century
D a = Athos, Dionysiou 274; 17th century
D i = Athos, Dionysiou 275; 17th century
I have also incorporated a small number of variants from

two Greek manuscripts identified by Sherwood, Earlier Ambigia, andJeauneau C C SG 18:
T = Panbagios Taphos 20; n th century
M = Monacensisgraecus 363; I3th-I4th century
Two secondary witnesses have also been consulted, both

dating to the final years of the Byzantine Empire, when pas
339
NOTE ON THE T E X T
sages from Maximoss writings were heavily cited by Hesychast theologians:

T h = Theophanes o f Nicaea, F ive Orations on the Light o f Thabor, ed.
George Zacharopoulos (Thessaloniki, 2003), 123-304; and id., That the
World Could Not H ave Been Created E x A eterno, ed. Ioannis Polemis
(Athens, 2000), 1-4 9 .
J n = Jo h n Kantakouzenos, Refutation ofProchoros Kydones 1-2; and id.,
Dispute w ith Paul the Latin Patriarch, ed. Edm ond Voordeckers and
Franz Tinnefeld, C C S G 16 (Turnhout, 1987).
In the Notes to the Text, these secondary witnesses are

cited by page and line number.
S igns
and
A b b reviatio n s E m plo yed
in the
N otes
to t h e
ext
Sigla
A = Angelicusgraecus 120; n th century
B a = Athos, Vatopaidi 32; 13th century
C = Vaticanusgraecus 504; 12th century
D = Vaticanusgraecus 507; 14th century
D a = Athos, Dionysiou 274; 17th century
D i = Athos, Dionysiou 275; 17th century
E r = Jo h n Eriugena, M aximi Confessoris Am bigua ad lohannem; 9th
century
lb = Athos, Iviron 386; 16th century
J n = Joh n Kantakouzenos; 14th century
M = Monacensis graecus 363; I3th-I4th century
340
N O T E ON T H E T E X T
O hler = Franz Ohler, M axim i Confessoris de variis difficilibus locis.

Halle, 1857
P = Atbos, Panteleimon 548; 15th century
P G = J.-P- Migne, Patrologia Graeca. Paris, i860
T = Panbagios Paphos 20; n th century
T h = Theophanes o f Nicaea; 14th century
V = Vaticanus graecus 1502; 12th century
Va = Vaticanus graecus 2020; 10th century
Z = Barberini graecus 587; 16th century
Abbreviations
abv. = above
add. = added in/by
post corn = after correction
ante corr. = before correction
corr. = corrected
fol. = folio page
fols. = folio pages
in marg. - in margin
I. = line
II. = lines
om.
omitted in/by
< ...> = editorial inclusion or insertion

? = a reading is probable or possible but not certain
341
NO TE ON T H E T E X T
N otes
1 Franz Ohler, Sancti Patris nostri M aximi Cottfessoris di variis difficilibus lo

ots. SS. PP. Dionysii et Gregorii ad Thomam KS. librum ex codice manuscripto
Gudiano descripsit et in Latinum sermonem interpretatus post I. Scoti et Tb. Gale
testamina nunc primum integrum edidit. Anecdota graeca, Tomus I (Halle,
1857).
2 Thomas Gale,Joarmis ScotiErigenae de Divisione Naturae tibri quinque diu
desiderati. Accedit Appendix ex Ambiguis S. Maximi Graece et Latine (Oxford,
1681). In an appendix to this edition, Gale published the whole o f the Ambigua to Thomas, and a small portion o f the Ambigua toJohn (i.e., the Letter
to John o f Kyzikos, and Amb 6-10.3).
342
Notes to the Text
A m b ig u a
to
oh n
Ambiguum 23
1
A"" " rVCPBDa: A ^ntOTD PG: inchoatum E r
2
3
CB: AVPDa P G : omnis Er, see CCSG 18:147<L lI<aP~

paratus
PPtcmrpt- om VCD P PG: quod movetur est et factum Er, which
suggests that his Greek text may have had- ,

. . . AVCPBaDa: om. PG: magister magis
laudabat immobile divinum. Sed sicut secundum scientiam Er

A AVCPBaDa: PG
Ambiguum 24
1
AC: VPDa P G
Ambiguum 25
i
AVCDPIbDa Ohler: PG: subiectum Er
Ambiguum 26
1
. . . AVC: . . . D: om. PG: E x eodem sermone Er
AVCPDa: PG : addidit Er
343
N O TES TO THE TEXT
Ambiguum 27
1
2
3
AVCPDa: PG
AVC Ohler: PG
AVCPDa; PG : vocatio Er
Ambiguum 30
SedVerbi gratiaEr
Ambiguum 31
1
2
3
4
j
6
7
8
' AVCDPDa: PG: Si secundum veritatem Er

V CD PD a PG : A
ACDa: PG: VP
Thefollowing subsection (Amb 31.4-31.6) is notfound in A .
CPDa; PG : proterve Er
VCPDa: PG: mysticum Er
AVCPDa: om. P G
AVCDa: D P G : experimentum Er
Ambiguum 32
1
2
3
4
AVCPDa: PG: aliud principium Er

Vi>," rP: A C PG
AVCPDa: PG
AVCPDa: PG: dicitur Er
Dionysios the Areopagite, E H 2.4 (7$, l. 1$; 400C).

AVCPDa PG: unitate Er
. .. V in marg. P: om. ACD a PG: et per ilia in praestantiaEr
Ambiguum 34
1
2
AVCPDa: PG: circa Deum Er

. . . AVC: . . . PG
34 4
AM BIGUUM
41
Ambiguum 35
1
2
AVC: PG
AVCPDa: PG: et nullo modo Er
Ambiguum 36
i
AC: . . . V in marg. PDa:

D PG : indifferens Er
Ambiguum 37
1
AVCPDa: PG
. AVCPDa: om. PG : et in nullo

ullum omnino subsistens aut apparens Er. (I have emended to
*)
AVCPDa: PG
AVCPDa: om. PG
Ambiguum 38
1
AVCPDa: PG : illorum Er
2
3
AVCPDa: ' D PG: subiecti Er

A ^ '^ C D PG: AMCOrr: V'*u,rTP
Ambiguum 40
i
AVCP: PG
Ambiguum 41
1
2
VCPDa: A PG
AVCPDa: PG
3
4
AVCPDa: PG: adunationem Er

AVCPDa: PG
AVCPDa: PG: praemonstratas E r

AVCPDa: PG: nos nobismet Er
345
N O TES TO THE T E X T
7
8
AVCPDa: PG: pretiosissimaEr

AVCPDa: om. PG: causaliter Er
Ambiguum 42
1
2
3
4
5
AVCD: ' PG: ex sermoneinbaptismaEr

AVCP: PG
Here I insert the missing article, and read with Eriugena:
AVC PG: P: nostras Er
AVCP: PG
. .. VC: ,
PG: Alia inidipsumspeculatio Er. Thefo/lowingfourpara
graphs (Amb 42.5-42.8) are notfound in A , the absence o f which has been
noted in the margin by a later hand (fol. i/ir).
VCP: om PG
... VCP: om. PG: per inconfusamrerumac bene
VCP: PG:
Gudianusgraecus 39 (Obler,., . ): non
convertens naturamEr
. . . VCP: om. PG: aut quasi adiutor, inquam, sicut
discretam declarationem Er
9
10
germen agri dedi te Er

. . . V C P Ohler: om. PG : et permanet et alium
similiter corporis per quem et fit et est Er
11
PG: VCP: unitatemEr
12
V C P PG: A: intellectualiter Er
13
14
iy
16
17
AVCP: PG
AVCP: PG: anfractus Er
AVCP: om. PG: aut Er
AVCP: PG
^:6:
18
erTAVCP: P G
19 AVCP: om. PG: si Er

20 AV CP: PG : si Er
21 AVCP: PG
22
. . . V in marg. CP:
346
AM BIGUUM
52
P G : aquae vitalis matrem siccissimam ostendens petram, non mutatam in alteram naturam per aquam Er
Ambiguum 45
i
AVCP: om. PG
Ambiguum 46
1
2
3
AVCP: PG: radios Er

ACD: VP: in eis Er
... AVCDP: om. PG: et congregatis ad
Deum ea quae est secundum similitudinem commoditate, omni in
eis circa omnia motu finem statumque accipiente, immediatam in
ipso Deo perennitatem E r
Ambiguum 47
i
There is a critical edition o f this Ambiguum in SC 180:383-9$. It does not

differ significantlyfrom the text in PG.
Ambiguum 48
1
2
3
AVCP: PG : addetur Er
AVCDP: has et has Er. Ohler emends the text to read
, rendering explicit what Maximos has expressed as a euphemism.
AVCDP PG: modum E r
Ambiguum 50
1
2
. . . C: . . . A V P G : a lia ...
AVCP: om. PG: saeculum Er
Ambiguum J2
^ : 6
347
N O T ES TO T H E TEXT
Ambiguum 53
1
2
3
AVCP: PG: promissionem Er

AVCP: PG : refertum Er
The remainder ofthis Ambiguum is notfound in A.
Ambiguum 54
1
VC P: A D PG: est aut Er
2
3
AVCP: P G
AVCP: ;
PG: omnis itaque homo augmentum Er
AVCDP Ohler: om. PG : atque scientiae Er
AVCDP: P G
4
5
Ambiguum 56
i
AVCP: PG: omnia Er
Ambiguum 58
1
2
AVCP: PG
A V C P: PG (see Rom }:2$)
Ambiguum 60
1
2
spirituales secundum theoriam rationes scientiae Er

AV CP: PG: carnis Er
Ambiguum 62
i
AVCDP: PG: multa significantem Er
Ambiguum 63
1
2
Thisparagraph is notfound in A .
VC P: om. PG
348
AM BIGU U M
67
Ambiguum 65
1
AVCD P: ' PG: universaliter E r
2
3
4
St AVCDP: om. PG: autem Er

A VP PG: A add. abv. line CD: semper esse Er
. .. . . . A CP: Win marg.: ... . . .
PG: est. . . bene.. . semper Er
Ambiguum 66
1
2
3
4
The word is supplied from the critical edition o f Gregorys oration

(SC tf8:}20,1. 14).
AVCP Ohler: PG
corr. Alexakis: AC
V C P: om. A D PG: sanctissima Er
Ambiguum 67
1
2
3
a """""V C P : A^ ":D PG
AV CP: PG: contemplatoribus Er
to AVCP: om. PG
4
5
AVP: C: D PG : duodenarius Er
AVCD P PG: saeculorum Er
6
7
8
A W : PG: sub principio Er

AVCP: , P G
AV CP: PG
11
AVCP: PG: praeclaram Er

AVCP: D P G
... AVCD : om. PG: ex his duodecem completur numerus Er
AVCDP: PG: summis Er
AVCDP: P G : quae moventur Er
AVCP: PG: essentiali Er
Thisparagraph is notfound in A.
V C P: D PG: numerorum Er
. . . V C D P: om. P G : et salvatricem essentiarum, et discrepantium continuatricem Er.
12
13
14
15
16
17
349
NOTES TO THE T E X T
18
19
20
21
VCP:
D PG : Discrepantia nanque a summis media
moventur Er
VCP: D PG: notitiam E r
V C P : PG: distribuit Er
VCP: om. P G : et Er
Ambiguum 70
1
. . . AVCP: om. D P G : hoc est augmentum: per

quod autem quis facit additionem Er
2
3
VC P: AD PG: itaque re E
AVCP: PG
Ambiguum 71
1
A VCD PD aZ PG: iudicans Er. Aiodern scholars argue that the

correct reading o f Gregoryspoem is not (i.e., judging), but
(i.e., mixing); see Zehles and Zamora, Gregor von Nazianz, 253, 288.
However, it is clearfrom the manuscripts that Maximos had a version o f
the poem containing the word (confirmed by Eriugenas transla
tion), a variant reading that is alsofound in an early manuscript containing
Gregorys poem, Ambrosianus graecus 433 (H 45 sup.), fol. iov. More
over, a commentary on Gregorys poem attributed to Kosmas o f Jerusalem
(extant solely in Vaticanus graecus 1260, fol. 20<yr) also reads ,
which the commentator glosses as , a known meaning o f
; see Lozza, Cosma di Gerusalem m eîf I am thankful to Profes
sor Christos Simetidesfor this information.
2
3
4
5
6
AVCDP: om. PG
VCPD a: om. AD PG: et habitudinis Er
AVCDP: om. PG: ait Er
AVCDPDa: P G : recipit Er
Thefollowing fourparagraphs (Amb 71.5-8) are not found in A .
VCDP: om. PG
8
9
V ?it 'TPDa: '" " " " C D PG: immobilem Er

V C P : PG : pertransivit Er
350
e p i l o g u e
VCPDa: PG: theofrono Er

VCPDa: PG: Ipse
siquidem in epitaphio in Caesarium sui firatrem apertius ostendit Er
[Epilogue]
AVCDa: PG : divina sapientis magistri Er
Notes to the Translation
A m b ig u a
to
oh n
Ambiguum 23
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Gregor) the Theologian, Or. 29.2 (SC 250:180, 11. 13-14); see voL 1,
Amb 1.
See Aristotle, Phys 24ibi-267b26.
If the reading of Eriugena is accepted, then the translation should be:
If everything that is moved, exists and has been created.. . .
See vol. 1, Amb 5.1.
See Dionysios the Areopagite, D N 4.14 (160, 11.1-2 ,3 -4 ; 712C).
Gregory the Theologian, Or. 40.27 (SC 358:260,1.28).
See Dionysios the Areopagite, D N 4.10 (155, 11. 18-20; 708B); and
Plato, Tbeaet 150c.
See Gregory the Theologian, Or. 31.25-27 (SC 250:322-30).
Ambiguum 24
1
2
Gregory the Theologian, Or. 29.6 (SC 250:188,11. 26-33).

Essential [powers] able to complete renders the Greek symplerotikas, which means both able to complete and forming an essential
part of, in the way that form is the fulfillment of matter, or natural
qualities are the completion o f a substance; see John Philoponos,
Commentary on Aristotles Categories (CAG 13/1:34, 64); Basil, Hexaemeron 1.8 (SC 26bis:i2o); Ps.-Cyril o f Alexandria, Extracts from the
Old Testament Sayings (PG 77U265A); and QThal 49 (C C SG 7:355,11.
81-85).
Here Maximos addresses the fourth-century Arians directly. This
353
N O T E S TO T H E T R A N S L A T I O N
anachronism may be a simple rhetorical device, or Maximos may

be assuming the voice o f Gregory, or perhaps addressing seventhcentury Arians or others who held similar views.
4
On the Aristotelian categories o f the simultaneous and the re

ciprocal relation, see voL i, Amb 7.19, n. 25; and Amb 7.40, nn. 48
and 49; on the intermediate relation, see Proklos, Platonic Theology
3.24 (ed. Saffrey and Westerink 1978,85, 11.4 -8 ; see n. 333).
Gregory had used this image earlier in the oration (Or. 29.3): Clearly
a cause is not necessarily prior to its effectsthe sun is not prior to
its light (SC 250:182,11.17-19).
Ambiguum 25
1
Gregory the Theologian, Or. 29.15 (SC 250:208, 11. 7-11). Gregorys
point turns on a principle o f Aristotelian logic (Cat ia), i.e., whether
or not an individual can belong to a species or class only i f it shares
all the characteristics of every member of that species or class. Aristode found this to be a false conclusion, and Gregory agreed. Thus,
conceding some differences in particulars (e.g., that in some ways
the Father is superior to the Son) does not demand that the individ
uals in the species be reclassified. As Gregory states later in this sec
tion o f his oration, the Arian fallacy' lies in arguing from the particu
lar to the general, from a conditioned to an unconditioned term,
2
3
which Gregory says is like saying X is a dead man, and then draw
ing the conclusion: mankind without qualification is dead; see
Norris, Faith Gives Fullness to Reasoning 150-51.
Gregory the Theologian, Or. 29.15 (SC 250:208,11.4-7).
In logic, a figure (schema) is the form of a syllogism, classified ac
cording to the position o f the middle term.
Ambiguum 26
1
Gregory the Theologian, Or. 29.16 (SC 250:210-12, 11. 20-23). My

translation o f this passage is slightly expanded in light o f Gregorys
larger argument.
See LrdPr (CCSG 23:41-42, 11. 250-57).
354
A M BIGU U M
29
The manner in which (tou pos echei), sometimes translated as dis

position, is a technical phrase closely related to the category o f
schesis (i.e., relation, condition), and answers the question What is
it like? or What is its mode of being? Its Stoic origins overlap
with its later Aristotelian and Neoplatonist usage, as in Plotinos,
Ennead 6.1.29, where the phrase is rendered as being in a certain
state (LCL 6:103); see Barnes, Porphyry, 52 n. 9, and 312-14.
Ambiguum 27
1
Gregory the Theologian, Or. 30.8 (SC 250:240,1L 1-6). The context
here is a discussion ofjohn 20:17, where Christ says to Mary' Magda
lene, I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and
2
3
4
your God.
Literally; names.
Gregory the Theologian, Or. 30.8 (SC 250:240-42,11.6 -10 ).
I.e., the Arians and the Monophysites, respectively
5
6
I.e., o f the Incarnation.

This is the first mention in the Ambigua to John o f the wise elder,
along with a transcription o f his teaching; see vol. 1, Amb 4.5.
Ambiguum 28
1
Gregory the Theologian, Or. 30.9 (SC 250:242, 11. 1-6). The words
in parentheses are presumably the remarks o f Maximos, John o f
Kyzikos, or perhaps a later editor or copyist; they are extant in the
Latin translation by Eriugena.

This is the second reference to the wise elder; see above, Amb 27.5,
n. 6.
See vol. 1, Amb x7.11, n. 22.
Ambiguum 29
1
Gregory the Theologian, Or. 30.11 (SC 250:244, 11 2-3) In the pre
ceding chapter o f this oration (Or. 30.10), Gregory examined at least
five different meanings o f cannot in his exegesis ofjo h n 5:19 (The
355
Son cannot do anything o f Himself but only what He sees the Fa

ther doing). The passage under consideration in Amb 29 continues
this discussion, with the cannot having the sense o f something
impossible or inconceivable, as Gregory notes at the outset of Or.
30.11.
This is the third mention o f the wise elder, on which see above, Amb
28.2, n. 2.
Ambiguum 30
1
2
Gregory' the Theologian, Or. 30.21 (SC 250:274,11. 32-35).

See vol. i, Amb 10.2.
Eriugena reads: Yet he who fo r the sake o f the Word chose voluntary
estrangement. . . (CCSG 18:158, 11.16-17).
See vol. 1, Amb 10.45,n 36
Ambiguum 31
1
Gregory' the Theologian, Or. 38.2 (SC 358:106, 11.9-10).
Interpretation renders the Greek w'ord epibole, which also means

direct insight.
The decad may be the nine orders or choirs o f angels with the addi
tion o f humanity; the fraternal dyad may be an expression of the
union of the human and the angelic, who are often described as
brothers; see Gregory o f Nyssa, On the Song o f Songs (GN O 6:254,
11. 14); id., Life o f Moses 2.47 (GNO 7/1:46, 11. 13-23); Evagrios, On
Proverbs 163: If the sons o f Christ are the brothers o f each other,
and i f the angels and the righteous are the sons o f Christ, then the
angels and the saints are brothers, for they are begotten byr the same
Spirit o f adoption (see Rom 8:15) (SC 340:260).
Vision renders the Greek w'ord epopsia, which can also mean over
sight in the sense o f spiritual care and direction. The word is
heavily attested in the writings o f Diony'sios the Areopagite, where
it denotes the care o f superiors for subordinates in the various hier
archies, as well as that o f masters for disciples.
Maximos discusses these three Lucan parables in Letter 11 (PG
9i:453C-456A).
356
AM BIGUUM
7
8
9
32
See Gregory the Theologian, Or. 38.14 (SC 358:136,11. 6-11); id., Or.
26.2 (PG 35.1229B); and Dionysios the Areopagite, EH 2.3 (71, 11.1- 4 ;
393 C)
See vol. 1, Amb 10.38, n. 31.
Gregory the Theologian, Or. 19.8 (PG 35:1052c); seeMaximos, Letter
28 (PG 9i:62iA).
Ambiguum 32
1
2
Gregory the Theologian, Or. 38.2 (SC 358:106, 11.11-13).

I.e., the passage from Gregorys Or. 38.2 (The laws o f nature are
abolished), cited at the head o f Amb 31, which is the first passage
Maximos cites from that oration; the passage that immediately fol
lows it (For to us a child is born... for He is exalted by means of the
3
4
5
6
8
9
cross) is the one under consideration here.

For what follows, see Gregory o f Nyssa, On the Interval o f Three Days
(GN O 9/1:300-303); and id., Catechetical Oration 32 (SC 453:286-92).
Governing cause renders the Greek word aitia, since the notion o f
cause operative here is not simply an isolated act o f remote origi
nation but a power that continues to inform and govern its effects.
The same holds for the word origin (arche).
See below, Amb 47.2-3.
The codicillus (a Latin word) designates an imperial document confer
ring some privilege; see Codex Theodosianus 6.4.23. Extremely rare
among patristic writers, the word codicillus is attested fifteen times
in the Novels o f Justinian, supporting the tradition that Maximos
had been in the service of the imperial government. On the ducal
office (protospatharios), see Cod. Th. 7.4.30, 11.25.1, 15.11.2; and Guilland, Recherches. 99-131.
See Clement, Stromateis 5.6.37.2 (SC 278:84); Gregory o f Nyssa, On the
Song o f Songs 12 (GN O 6:52,11.10 -17 ); Chrysostom, On the Cross and
the Thief 1 (PG 49:404c); Evagrios, Praktikos, Prologue (SC 171:488,
II. 29-34); and QThal 3 (CCSG 7:55-57,11. 25-36).
I.e., the Christ-form (christoeides), a word coined by Dionsyios the
Areopagite, D N 1.4 (114 , 1.8; 592C); E H 7.2 (121, 1. 22; 553D).
Dionysios the Areopagite, EH 2.4 (75,11.10 - 19 ; 400BC).
357
N O TES TO THE T R A N S L A T IO N
Ambiguum 33
Gregory the Theologian, Or. 38.2 (SC 358:106,11.16 -17 );see id Letter
101.49 (SC 208:56, U. 15-18).
See voL 1, Amb 10.31-32.
Ambiguum 34
Gregory the Theologian, Or. 38.7 (SC 358:116, 11. 9-11); see id., Orr.
28.13,30.17 (SC 250:128, 11.17-20; ibid, 262,11. 9-13).
Ambiguum 35
Gregory the Theologian, Or. 38.9 (SC 358:120,11.1-3). Gregory, having
already spoken o f the Holy Trinity (Or. 38.8), is speaking o f the dif
fusion o f the Good in creation.
This is the fourth mention of the wise elder; see above, Amb 29.2.
Dionysios the Areopagite, D N 9.2 (208,1.13; 909C).
Not an exact quotation, but a paraphrase o f ideas from D N 2.11 (135
37; 649AB-652A).
Ambiguum 36
Ambiguum 37
Gregory the Theologian, Or. 38.17 (SC 358:142,11.1-3); see vol. 1, Amb
6.3.
Simplikios, in his Commentary on Aristotles Categories, reports that
Iamblichos, in commenting on the work o f the Pythagorean philos
opher Archytas, had to unfold what the philosopher had intellec
tively concentrated (ekeina te noeros synespeiramena exeplose) (CAG
8:2,1. 21); see vol. 1, prol.John 6.
I.e., the Sunday after Easter.
AM BIGU U M
4
5
38
Gregon' the Theologian, Or. 44.1 (PG 36:6o8AB). Maximos will re

turn to this oration below, in Amb 61-64.
Simplikios, Commentary on Aristotles Categories, compresses the
decad o f Aristotles ten categories to a tetrad (i.e., substance, ac
cident, universal, particular), which is in turn compressed to a
dyad (i.e., self-existing beings, and those that subsist in others)
(CAG 8:44-45).
Seevol. 1, Amb 10.89-90,96-99. What are ostensibly modes o f bibli
cal interpretation are in fact intelligible patterns used in the order
ing o f matter. Though directly related to Aristotles categories, their
ontological character is largely that of the Platonic Forms, the syn
thesis of the two systems being a hallmark o f late-antique N eo
platonic philosophy. With the addition o f Pythagorean principles,
the synthesis was strongly mathematized (through Nikomachos
of Gerasas Introduction to Arithmetic, the anonymous Theologoumena
arithmeticae, and Anatolioss On the Decad), so that the categories in
question are all present in, emerge from, and return to the monad,
features which closely align the monad with the divine source o f
productivity and order; see OMeara, Pythagoras Revived. M axim oss
anonymous sources surely include the numerologically adept wise
7
8
elder; see below, Amb 66.

See Nemesios, On the Nature o f Man 1 (ed. Morani 1987,4, L 5).
See vol. 1, Amb 21.15-16.
Ambiguum 38
1
Gregor)' the Theologian, Or. 38.18 (SC 358:146,11. 4-7). T h at C h rist is

rightly worshipped in Egypt is probably a reference to the N icen e
orthodoxy of Peter II, who at the time of Gregorys oration w a s the
bishop o f Alexandria (373-380).
A reference to the tradition that when the infant C hrist entered
Egypt, its idols fell from their pedestals; see The Gospel o f Ps.Matthew 23-24 (trans.J. K. Eliot, The Apocryphal New Testament {Ox
ford, 2006], 96-97).
The phrase is from Philo, On the Sacrifices o f A bel and Cain 19 .6 9 ; 11.48
359
NOTES TO THE TR A N SLA TIO N
(LCL 2:144-4 6, 11. 1-2; 130 , 11. 8-9); id., On the Rules ofAllegory 3.12;
3.236 (LC L 1:306; 460); see LC L 10:399.
Ambiguum 39
1
2

This is the fifth mention of the wise elder; see above, Amb 35.2.
Ambiguum 40
1
2

See Dionysios the Areopagite, CH 7.3 (30, 11.15-22; 209C); EH 5.3; 6.6
(106; 504AC; 119-20; 537AC).

The text in PG places these words in quotation marks; they would
seem to be a paraphrase of Gregory o f Nyssa, Against Eunomios 3.7
[32] (GN O 2:226); see Basil, Against Eunomios 1.23 (SC 299:252-54).
See vol. 1, Amb 22.2; QThal 51 (CCSG 7:399,1L 73-82); and Gregory o f
Nyssa, Canonical Letter (PG 45:224A).

Id., Or. 40.41 (SC 358:292-94,11. n-12).
Ambiguum 41
1
Gregory the Theologian, Or. 39.13 (SC 358:176,11. 8-9); see vol. 1, Amb
5.7; and below; Amb 42.26-29.
2
3
See QThal 48 (CCSG 7:333-35, U- 65-81).

These first two divisions are discussed by Gregory of Nyssa, Against
Eunomios 1 [270-72} (GNO 1:105-6, 11. 19-11); and ibid., 2 [66-67]

(GNO 2 :2 0 9 -10 , 11.19-11).
Workshop renders the Greek wrord ergasterion, which here suggests
a center o f both production and exchange, as described by Chrysos
tom, On the Statues 16 (PG 49U72A). The word also has the meta
phorical sense o f a womb; see Philo, Life o f Moses 2.85 (LCL 6 :49);
Clement, Stromateis 3.12.83 (GCS 52:234); Gregory the Theologian,
Or. 28.22 (SC 250:146); and Proklos o f Constantinople, horn. 1.1,14
(ed. Constas 2003,136, see 149-50).
360
AM BIGU U M
42
Maximos has taken the Platonic principle of cosmological analogy

and placed it at the center o f his philosophical anthropology; see
vol. 1, Amb 17.8, n. 14.
See LrdPr (CCSG 23:3334); and Dionysios the Areopagite, CH 1.1 (7,
11.4 5; 120B).
See Philo, On the Creation o f the World 25-29 (77-88) (LCL 1:60-72);
Gregory the Theologian, Or. 38.11 (SC 358:124-26); id., Or. 44.4 (PG
36:6i2AB); Gregory o f Nyssa, On the Makingof Man 2 (PG 44 :1320 -
133B); and Nemesios o f Emesa, On the Nature o f Man 1 (ed. Morani

1987,4,11.12-16).
8
See Gregory o f Nyssa, On the Making o f Man 17, 22 (PG 44:1880,

205A); id., Against Apollinarios (GNO 3/1:212,11.6 -7); id., On Ecclesias
tes 6 (GNO 5:386,11.18 -21).
See Gregory o f Nyssa, On the Making o f Man 17,18 (PG 44:188c, 189C,
196A); id., AgainstApollinarios (GNO 3/1:212,1. 4); id., On the Song o f
Songs 1 (GNO 6:30,1.7).
Dionysios the Areopagite, D N 9.2, cited above, Amb 35.2, n. 3.
Gregory the Theologian, Or. 39.13 (SC 358:176,11.8 9).
See QThal 1 (CCSG 7:47, 11. 5-17); LrdPr (CCSG 23:47, 11. 341-43;
pp. 49.377-51.14; p. 54, 11. 467-70); and Gregory o f Nyssa, On the
M akingofMan 16-17,22 (P G 44:i77D-i92A, 205A).
See Gregory o f Nyssa, On the M akingofMan 24 (PG 4 4 :2 12 0 -2 130 .
Dionysios the Areopagite, D N 13.2 (227,11.13-17; 980A).
10
11
12
13
14
15
Ambiguum 42
1
Gregory the Theologian, Or. 40.2 (SC 358:198,11.14 -15 ; and p. 2 0 0 , 11.
11-17).
See Simplikios, Commentary on Aristotles Categories: The worthy exegete of Aristotles writings must not fall wholly short o f the latters
greatness o f intellect (C A G 8:7,11. 23-24); and Themistios, Commen
tary on Aristotles De Anima, who argues that if a teacher and a stu
dent do not have the same concepts (noemata), teaching and learning
become impossible, and that if the concept is the same, as it is nec
essary for it to be, then the intellect o f the teacher will be identical
361
NOTES TO THE T R A N SL A T IO N
with the intellect of the student because in the case o f the intellect
its essence is the same as its activity (CAG 5:10 4 , 11. 7-11); and be
3
low, Amb 45.3.

I.e., Adam. The argument here turns on a distinction between cre
ation or creaturely origin (genesis) and birth (germesis), the for
mer designating the initial moment o f human creation, marked by
the divine inbreathing (Gen 2:7), and the latter the process o f hu
man reproduction, which emerged after the fall. Note that Adam
was not bom, but created from the earth, so that procreation and
birth are realities that appear subsequent to Adams transgression;
see vol. 1, Amb 2.2-5; above, Amb 31.2; and QThal 21 (CCSG 7:127,11.
5-17)
4
5
Literally, parts.
On the distinction between creation (genesis) and birth (gentiesis),
see Origen, Scholia on the Gospel o f Matthew 1 (PG 17:289 AC).
This particular variant is attested neither in Origens Hexapla (PG

16:2485-86) nor in the Gottingen Septuagint (ed. Joseph Ziegler,
Ezechiel, in Septuaginta, 16/1 {Gottingen, 1952} 147), but it was com
mon knowledge among patristic exegetes that Symmachus used
blastema in place o f anatole; see Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on
Zechariah (ed. Pusey 1868, 363, 1. 25); Eusebios, On the Psalms (PG
23:64iD-644A); and Chrysostom, On Jeremiah (Fragments from the
Catenae) (PG 64:944).

This digression is indebted to Gregory of Nyssa, On the Making o f
Man 28-29 (PG 44:22911-24015). Sherwood, Earlier Ambigua, 60-61,
notes the influence o f Leontios o f Jerusalem, Against the Nestorians 1.1-19 ; and id., Against the Monophysites 48 (PG 86:41485A;
1797A). Maximoss position on this question is briefly summarized
by Psellos, De omnifaria doctrina 59 (ed. Westerink 1948, 41); see
id., Philosophica minora, opusc. 19 (ed. Duffy and O Meara 1989,89, 11.
29 - 33)
See vol. 1, Amb 7.40-43; Letter 12 (PG 91:4880); and Letter 13 (PG
91:517A, 525D).
9
10
See vol. 1, Amb 7.40, n. 48.

See Gregon' the Theologian, Or. 45.7 (PG 36-.632AB); id., Or. 38.11
(SC 358:124-26); Justinian, Edict Against Origen (ACO 3:19 6 , 11. 3-14).
362
AM BIGU U M
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
42
Gregory the Theologian. Or. 30.20 (SC 250:270,11.35-36).

See Cyril o f Alexandria, Thesaurus (PG 75:58400).
See Justinian, Edict Against Origen (ACO 3:193, U. 9-25; and p. 198, 11.
26-30).
Gregory the Theologian, Or. 38.11 (SC 358:124, 1L 10-13); a passage
cited by Justinian, Edict Against Origen (ACO 3:195, 11. 35-37; and
p. 19 6 ,1L 4-6).
See vol. 1, Amb 7.10,22; 10.12; and Amb 42.12,15,32; and 65.2-3.
That souls preexisted bodies was an Origenist doctrine condemned
by Justinian, Anathema 1 (ACO 3:213, 11.13-16).
See Gregory o f Nyssa, On the Making o f Man 28 (PG 44:23380).
See voL 1, Amb 7.2.
See vol. 1, Amb 7.16-17.
I.e., reason and wisdom.
Named after its founder, the Persian religious leader Mani (d. 277),
Manichaeanism was a system of metaphysical and ethical dualism in
which eternal principles o f good and evil were locked in perpetual
conflict. The material world (including the human body) was seen as
emanating from the principle of evil, encouraging the emperor Ju s
tinian to argue that the doctrines o f Origen were derived from Man
ichaeanism; see Edict Against Origen (PG 86:9478-94900); id., Let
ter to the Synod on Origen (PG 86:99iA).
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
A reference to the henad of rational beings refuted in Amb 7; on the

progression o f the rational beings, see Origen, On First Principles
3.1.23 (SC 268:140-46).
Gregory the Theologian, Letter 101.32 (SC 208:50,1.3).
Id., O r 38.13 (SC 358:134,1.37).
Ibid. (80358:134,11.29-30).
A view defended by Porphyry, To Gaurus, On the Animation o f the Em
bryo (ed. Kalbfleisch 1895).
See Gregory o f Nyssa, On the Making o f Man 29 (PG 44:23600).
Soul here does not mean the rational soul found in human beings,
but the vital, animating force found in plants and irrational animals.
This is a rite associated with the larger process of Christian initia
tion. Following Jewish liturgical tradition and the example o f Christ
363
NOTES TO THE TRAN SLATIO N
(Lv 12:1-8; Lk 2:2232), infants born to Christian parents are not

brought to church until the fortieth day after their birth, at which
30
31
32
point the rite in question is conducted, with prayers o f purifica

tion being read for both the infant and its mother; see Jeanlin, Les
prieres du purification.
See Hippocrates, Concerning an Eight-Month Birth 9.5 (ed. Joly 1970,
172, 11.10 -16 ); Aristotle, HA 583b3-2o; and Mansfeld 1971,167 n. 59,
179 n. 134,191 n. 198.
I.e., than was usual.
See Gregory' o f Nyssa, On the Making o f Man 17-18 (PG 44:1890192D)
Ambiguum 43
1
2
3

This is the sixth mention o f the wise elder; see above, Amb 39.2, n. 2.
Galen, Commentary on Hippocratess Predictions 3.100 (ed. Kuhn 1829,

16:719, 11. 2-4); see Hippocrates, Prognostics 6 (ed. Littre 18 4 0 ,122
24); id., Aphorisms 4.36; 7.85 (ed. Littre 1844, 514-16, 606); Galen,
Commentary on Hippocratess Aphorisms 4.36 (ed. Kiihn 1829,17/2:71115); id., Commentary on Hippocratess Prognostics 1.26 (ed. Kiihn 1830,
18/2:81-85).
Ambiguum 44
1
Gregory the Theologian, Or. 40.33 (SC 358:274, 11. 11-12). Gregorys
words are in reference to the Gospel story o f the woman with the
flow o f blood (Mk 5:25-34), who robbed Christ o f a cure by grasp
ing the hem of his garment.
Ambiguum 45
1
Gregory the Theologian, Or. 45.8 (PG 36:632c); see Or. 38.12 (SC
358:128,11.5-8). This Ambiguum begins the longest series o f excerpts
(Amb 45-60) taken from any one oration by Gregory.
364
AM BIGU U M
2
3
4
j
6
7
46
See above, Amb 42.3, n. 2.

Id., Or. 28.4 (SC 250:108, II 12-14); see W., Carmina moralia (PG
37:68yA); and Philo, On Husbandry 162 (LCL 3:192, 11. 5-7).
On the plural usage, see vol. 1, Amb 5.27, n. 23; see also above, Amb
4 2 -33 A phrase with both physiological and philosophical meanings, so that

bodily flux and imbalance (including an imbalance in the bodys fbur
humors) become a metaphor for disorder in the mind as well as
conflict in the body politic; see Lackner, Studien zurphilosophischen
Scbultradition, 81.
Gregory the Theologian, Or. 45.8 (PG 36:633A).
The major ideas of this paragraph find parallels in Nemesios o f
Emesa, On the Making o f Man 1 (ed. Morani 1987,8-10).
Ambiguum 46
r
2
3
4
5
Gregory the Theologian, Or. 45.13 (PG 36:64^).

Appellatives (prosegoriai) were distinguished from names (onomata) by the Stoics as separate parts o f language; see Chrysippos,
SVF 2.147; Diogenes o f Babylon: A n appellative is . . . a part o f lan
guage which signifies a common quality, such as man or horse,
whereas a name is a part of language which indicates a peculiar
quality (cited in Brunschwig, Stoic Theory, 44-45); and Origen,
On Prayer 24.2 (GCS 2:353-54), who applies this distinction to his ex
egesis o f M t 6:9.
See above, Amb 37.3, n. 2.
See Plato, Tim 39c. In QThal 65 (C C SG 22:263,11. 200-206), Maximos connects the fivefold division o f time with the five senses.
The image o f God as an intelligible sun was made famous by Plato,
Rep 508c; see Gregory the Theologian, Or. 28.30 (SC 250:168,11.1-5);
Dionysios the Areopagite, DN 4.1 (143.9-44.5; 693B); ibid., 4.4 (147,
11. 2-4; 149, 11. 6-8; 697BC, 700C); ibid., 5.8 (187.17-88.6; 824BC);
and John o f Slcythopolis, scholia on D N 4.1 (PG 4:24oAB); D N 5.8
(PG 4:328D-329A); and CH 2.5 (PG 4:45D-48A).
These words allude to a passage in the Nicene Creed; my translation
renders the allusion more literal.
3<55
NO TES TO T H E TRAN SLATIO N
The whole o f this last sentence, along with additional phrases taken
from this paragraph, are cited by Nikephoros o f Constantinople,
Refutation and Overthrow o f the Definition o f the Iconoclast Synod o f81$
(CCSG 33:96); and id., Testimoniapatrum (ed. Pitra 1852,344-45). In
both works, the citation is followed by a supporting passage from
Maximos, Letter 12 (PG 9i:468BC).
Ambiguum 47
Gregory the Theologian, Or. 45.14 (PG 36:64iCD).
See Dionysios the Areopagite, DN 1.4 (115, II. 8-10; 592D-593A);
ibid., 1.5 (116 , 11.14 -15; 593BC).
On the plural usage, see vol. 1, Amb 10.31, n. 34.
Ambiguum 48
See id., Or. 23.14 (SC 270:310).
Ambiguum 49
Gregory the Theologian, Or. 45.18 (PG 36:6480. Passages from this,
and from the following eleven Ambigua (i.e., Amb 49-60.1), are
cited by Psellos, On the hidden allegories in Gregory the Theolo
gians oration On Pascha (ed. Gautier 1989,1:162-65, 11.1-94).
Ambiguum 50
Gregor)' the Theologian, Or. 45.19 (PG 36:6498).
See above, Amb 49.
Ambiguum 51
Gregory the Theologian, Or. 45.21 (PG 36:652!!).
See Q D 30 (CCSG 10:25-26).
AM BIGU U M
See Evagrios, Prologue to On Prayer, where Rachel symbolizes con

templation and Leah the practice o f the virtues (PG 79:ii65A).
Ambiguum 52
1
Gregory the Theologian, Or. 45.24 (PG 36:656c).
Ambiguum 53
1

Or, repudiates the principle of judgment.
Ambiguum 54
1
Ambiguum 55
1
Gregory the Theologian, Or. 45.24 (PG 36:65600).
Ambiguum 56
t
2

See Dionysios the Areopagite, DN 7.5 (202,11.12 -14 ; 892D).
Origen, Homily on Luke 27.5, describes the dove as a meek creature

(SC 87:348,11. 18-21); that it is fecund is the opinion o f Aristotle,
HA V I.1 558b.
4
5
6
Or blindness.
Or principles.
See Gregory the Theologian, Or. 45.16 (PG 36:645A).
Ambiguum 57
1
2
Gregors' the Theologian, Or. 45.24 (PG 36:657A); see id., Or. 40.25
(SC 358:252,11.17-19).
See QD 191 (CCSG 10:133-34).
367
Ambiguum 58
1
2

See id., Concerning his own life (PG 37:22, 11.496-500).
Ambiguum 59
1
See id., Or. 45.24 (PG 36:657A).
Ambiguum 60
1
2
Gregory the Theologian, Or. 45.25 (PG 36:657!)).

See Dionysios the Areopagite, EH 3.12: For the one, simple, and hid
den Jesus, the most supremely divine Word, by His incarnation
among us, came forth, out o f goodness and love toward man, to the
compound and visible (92.21-93.1; 444A); ibid., 1.1 (63,1.12; 372A);
and ibid., 4.4 (98,1. 26; 477C).
Ambiguum 61
1
2
Gregory the Theologian, Or. 44.2 (PG 36:6o8BC). Here dedicated

also means inaugurated; see below, Amb 62.1.
See Gregor)' o f Nyssa, On the Life o f Moses 2.174 (GNO 7/1:91-92, 11.
21-25).
Ambiguum 62
1
2
Gregory the Theologian, Or. 44.2 (PG 36:6o8BC).

Id., Or. 10.4 (SC 405:324,11. 14-15). The second part o f this citation
appears to be an allusion to id., Or. 30.1 (SC 250:228,11.24-26).
Ambiguum 63
1
The two internal citations are from Gregory the Theologian, Or. 45.2
(PG 36:624c); and id., Or. 44.5 (PG 36:612c). The context o f the
second is an elaborate comparison between the Sunday of the Res-
368
a m b i g u u m
66
urrection and the Sunday that follows it, on which the Church cele
brates the renewal o f the Resurrection at the end o f the cosmic
week symbolized by the Octave o f Easter.
I.e., more sublime than the sublime Sunday o f the Resurrection.
Ambiguum 64
1
Gregory the Theologian, Or. 44.8 (PG 36:616!)).
Ambiguum 65
1
Gregory the Theologian, Or. 41.2 (SC 358:316-18, 11. 33-36). Amb 65
67 speculate on the meaning o f various numbers and mathematical
relations. In contrast to the Origenists, for whom number and plu
rality were the result o f a fall from a primordial unity, Maximos sees
numbers as a positive expression of the created order, an affirma
tion o f the ontological value o f difference, particularity, and multi
plicity; see above, Amb 37.5, n. 6.
See QThal 60, scholion 1 (CCSG 22:81, 11. 1-5); and QThal 25 (CCSG
7:163,11.72-80).
See QThal 65 (CCSG 22:279,11. 466-68).
I.e., manifestation.
3
4
Ambiguum 66
1
2
3
4
5
Gregory the Theologian, Or. 41.4 (SC 358:320,11.13-16). According to

the Septuagint, three, and not seven, is the number o f times that
Elijah is said to have covered the dead child, and poured water on
the wood.
This is the seventh and final mention o f the wise elder; see above,
Amb 43.2.
See Nikomachos, Introduction to Arithmetic 2.17 (ed. Hoche, 1866,
108-9).
See Philo, On the Creation o f the World 30 (LCL 1:72-74).
The number seven is virginal since it is neither produced by the
369
multiplication o f any two numbers in the decad nor does it repro

duce (through multiplication) any number within the decad; see
Philo, On the Creation o f the World 30 (LCL 1:78-80); id., Allegorical
Interpretation o f Genesis 1.5 (LCL 1:134); and Ps.-Iamblichos,
Theologoumena arithmeticae 7.41 (ed. De Falco and Klein 1975, 54,
1. 1
1).
Gregory the Theologian, Carmina moralia 1 (In Praise o f Virginity) 20

(PG Yi-.yzyh, L 20).
See Didymos o f Alexandria, On the Trinity 1.18.13-17 (ed. Honscheid

1975, n o , 11.3-10).
Ambiguum 67
1
2
3
Gregory the Theologian, Or. 41.4 (SC 338:322,11.29-34). Maximos re

fers to this Ambiguum at the conclusion o f QThal 39, where he says:
But you have a more extensive treatment o f this subject in the Ambigua (CCSG 7:261, 11.59-61).
See Q D 41 (CCSG 10:35, 11. 20-22); Ps 59 (CCSG 23:5-7, 11. 37-65);
QThal 64 (CCSG 22:209,1- 360).
See Aristotle, Phys 20967-8; id., G C 321b; id.. An 41236-9.
See Dionysios the Axeopagite, D N 2.11 (135.13-36.1; 649B); D N 9.5

(210, 11. 7-11; 912D); D N 13.2 (227, 11. 6-7; 977C); see also D N 4.14
(16 0 , 1. 15; 713A); and DN 4.8 (153, 1. 8; 705A). See also C T 1.79 (PG
5
6
See vol. 1, Amb 2.5,5.2,5.11-12; and Opusc. 16 (PG 9i:20oBC).

See QThal 40 (CCSG 7:267, 11. 25-29); Plato, Tim 17a; Philo, On the
Creation o f the World 3.13 (LCL 1:12); id., On the Laws o f Allegory 1.2.3
(LCL 1:148); id., On the Special Law s 2.30.177 (LCL 7:416-18); Macro-
9 0 :i i i 2D -
7
8
iii
3B ) .
bius, Commentary on the Dream o f Scipio 1.6.12 (ed. Willis 1963,2:20, 11.
22-28); Ps.-Iamblichos, Theologoumena arithmeticae 6.33 (ed. De Falco
and Klein 1975,42, 11.19-20).
Since providence and judgment are each threefold; see above, Amb
67.8.
See Q Thal 39 (C C SG 7:259-61), where these same three days are
considered in detail.
370
a m b i g u u m
9
10
11
70
I.e., units o f one, ten, one hundred, and one thousand, respectively.
See QD 146 (CCSG 10 :10 3, 11. 4-8); Gregory o f Nyssa, Against Eunomios 2 {428] (GNO 1:351, 11.13-22); Hippolytos, Refutation o f A ll Here
sies 4.43.5-6 (GCS 26:65,11.19-23).
Ambiguum 68
1
2

Montanos, who made extensive use o f prophecy, was active in Phry
gia in the years 155-160, claiming to be the mouthpiece o f the Holy
Spirit and the incarnation o f the Paraclete promised in John 14:26.
Montanist churches were established as far west as North Africa,
although it is not likely that they were a significant presence during
Maximoss residence there.
Ambiguum 69
1
Gregory the Theologian, Or. 25.6 (SC 284:170, 1. 25). The whole of
Maximoss response was incorporated verbatim into the Souda (s.v.,
symbama), a famous Byzantine lexicon compiled around the year
1000.
Whereas traditional works on grammar would typically have said

Socrates, the use o f the name Joh n represents the transforma
tion o f such works by Christian editors (and in this instance may
fairly be taken as a lighthearted gesture to John o f Kyzikos). In the
logical compendia ascribed to Maximos, the stock figure o f Socrates
is replaced by Peter and Paul (ed. Roueche, Byzantine Philo
sophical Texts, 72,1.3; 73, 11.34-40).
Ambiguum 70
1
Gregory the Theologian, Or. 43.1 (SC 384:118,11. 23-24). This phrase
in itself does not make any sense, and may be either misplaced in its
current position, or, more likely, a marginal gloss mistakenly intro-
371
NO TES TO TH E TRAN SLATIO N
duced into the manuscript by a later scribe; see Bernardis note in

the apparatus o f the SC edition.
2
Or, morally beautiful.
Gregory the Theologian, Or. 43.x (SC 384:118,11.21-22).
Ambiguum 71
1
Gregory the Theologian, Carmina moralia 2 (Instructions to Virgins)

(PG 37:624A-625A, 11. 589-90); see id., Carmina quae spectant ad alios
(PG 37:i454A, 11. 33-34). Play renders the Greek paizein, but in
what follows Maximos uses this word only when direcdy citing from
Gregorys poem (which he does four times); otherwise he uses the
word paignion (ten times in all), which denotes, not play, but a
game, a toy, a plaything, or childs play, as well as a comic perfor
mance or a cheating trick. The shift is undoubtedly prompted by
Gregorys own use o f paignion in Or. 7.19, cited below, Amb 71.10,
n. 8.
3
4
5
6
7
John of Skythopolis, Scholion on D N 3.2 (PG 4:236^2378), offers a

similar interpretation o f 1 Cor 1:25 in a discussion o f Dionysioss
apophatic theology.
See Gregory o f Nyssa, Life ofMakrina 22 (GNO 8/1:395, L 19).
I.e., the mean terms.
Dionysios the Areopagite, D N 4.13 (159, 11.9 -14 ; 712AB).
Versions o f marbles, jacks, and dice, these games are described by
Suetonius, Concerning Greek Children 1 (ed. Taillardat 1967,67, 11. 84
103); andJulius Pollux, Onomasticon 9.103 (ed. Bethe 1900,2:176), but
they could also be used to pose mathematical puzzles; see Philo, On
the Creation o f the World 14.50 (LC L i :38).
Gregory the Theologian, Or. 7.19 (SC 405:226,11.1-9 ).
[Epilogue}
1
2
See Letter 5 (PG 91:432c).

See the Introduction to the QThal, where Maximos is reluctant to
undertake the solution to the biblical difficulties, since he drags
372
{e
p i l o g u e
along the ground like a snake, consistent with the ancient curse
(Gen 3:15), and, beyond the (produce of) the land of passions, has no
other sustenance, and slithers like a worm in the putrefaction of the
3
pleasures (CCSG 7:19 , 11.35-38).

Dionysios the Areopagite, D N 13.4 (230,11.16 -2 0 ; 981D); Maximoss
epilogue as a whole is more generally modeled on this, the closing
paragraph of Dionysioss celebrated work.
373
Bibliography
E d itio n s
of t h e
A m b ig u a
Gale, Thomas. Joannis Scoti Erigenae de Divisione Naturae lib ri quinque

diu desiderati. Accedit Appendix ex Ambiguis S. Maximi Graece et Latine.
Oxford, 1681.
Ohler, Franz. Sancti Patris nostri M aximi Confessoris de variis difficilibus lotis.
5 S, P P Diorrysii et Gregorii ad Thomam V. 5 . librum ex codice manuscripto
Gudiano descripsit et in Latinum sermonem interpretatus post I. Scoti et Th.
Gale tentamina nuncprimum integrum edidit. Anecdota graeca, Tomus I.
Halle, 1857.
Migne, Jacques-Paul. Palrologia Graeca, vol. 91, cols. 1032-1417. Paris, i860.
Janssens, Bart. Maximi Confessoris, Ambigua ad Thomam, 3-34. C C SG 48.
Tumhout-Leuven, 2002.
M odern T
r a n s l a t i o n s of t h e
m big u a
Sakalis, Ignatios. (
)
, . , ' , ed. . Nellas. Athens, 1978 The
Greek text is based on PG, with facing-page Modem Greek translation
o f Ambigua 1-10.30.
Staniloae, Dumitru. SfintulMaxim Marturistorul, Ambigua. Bucharest, 1983.
Romanian translation o f Ambigua 1-71.
Sakalis, Ignatios. , ,
, vols. 14 and 14 , ed. .
Chrestou. Thessaloniki, 1992, 1993. The Greek text is based on PG,
with facing-page Modem Greek translation o f Ambigua 141 and 42-71.
375
BIBLIO G R APH Y
Ponsoye, Emmanuel. Saint Maxime le Confesseur, Ambigua. Paris, 1994.

French translation o f Ambigua 1-71.
Louth, Andrew. Maximos the Confessor. London, 1996. English translations
o f Ambigua 1,5 ,10 ,4 1,7 1.
Moreschini, Claudio. Massimo il Confessore, Ambigua: Problemi metafisici e teologtci su testi di Gregorio di Nazianzo e Dionigi Areopagita. Milan, 2003.
Italian translation o f Ambigua 1-71.
Blowers, Paul M., and Robert Wilken. On the Cosmic Mystery o f Jesus Christ.
Selected Writings o f St. Maximos the Confessor. Crestwood, N.Y., 2003.
English translation o f Ambiguum 7 (by Wilken) and Ambigua 8 and 42
(by Blowers).
Benevich, Gregory et al. Upenodoonbiu Mokcum McnoeeduuK: no.ieMUKa c
opuzeuumoM u MOhowepcusMOM. St. Petersburg, 2007. Emended
Greek text and Russian translation of Ambiguum 7.
Lollar, Joshua. Maximus the Confessor, Ambigua to Thomas, Second Letter to
Thomas. Turnhout-Leuven, 2009. English translation o f the Ambigua to
Thomas.
P r im a r y S ources
Cyril o f Alexandria, Commentary on Zechariah P. E. Pusey, ed. Commentarium in xiiprophetas minores, vol. 2. Oxford, 1868; repr. 1965.
Didymos of Alexandria, On the Trinity = J. Honscheid, ed. De trinitate,
Buch I. Meisenham am Gian, 1975.
Doctrina Patrum = F. Diekamp, ed. Doctrina Patrum de incamatione Verbi,
Ein griecbisches Florilegium aus der Wende des siebenten und achtenjahrhunderts. Munster i.W., 1907; repr. with corr. and add. Munster, 1981.
Evagrios, Gnostic Chapters = A . Guillaumont, ed. Les Six Centuries des K ephalaia Gnosticad Evagre lePontique, Patrologia Orientalis 28.1, no. 134.
Paris, 1958.
Galen, Commentary on Hippocrates Aphorisms = C. G. Kiihn, ed. In Hippocratis aphorismos commentarii, Claudii Galeni opera omnia, vol. 17, part 2,
and vol. 18, part 1. Leipzig, 1829,17/2:343-887,18/1:1-195.
------ , Commentary on Hippocrates Predictions = C. G. Kiihn, ed. In Hippocratis praedictionum librum I commentarius, Claudii Galeni opera omnia,
vol. 16,489-840. Leipzig, 1829.
376
b i b l i o g r a p h y
------ , Commentary on Hippocrates Prognostics = C. G. Kuhn, ed. In Hippocratisprognostica commentarius, Claudii Galeni opera omnia, vol. 18, part
2,1-317. Leipzig, 1830.
Gregory Palamas, Triads = J. Meyendorff, ed. Gregoire Pa/amas. Defense des
saints besychastes: Introduction, text critique, traduction, et notes. 2 vols. Lou
vain, 1959.
Gregory the Theologian, Carmina = F. E. Zehles and M. J. Zamora, eds.
Gregor von Nazianz: Mahnungen an die Jungfrauen (Carmen i,2 q ). Studien
zur Geschichte und Kultur des Altertums, NF. 2 Reihe: Forschungen
zu Gregor von Nazianz 13. Paderbom-Munich-Vienna-Zurich, 1996.
Hippocrates, Aphorisms = E. Littre, ed. Aphorismi, Oeuvres completes
dHippocrate, vol. 4,458-608. Paris, 1844; repr. Amsterdam, 1978.
------ , Concerning an Eight-Month birth = R.Joly, ed. Hippocrate, Tome X I.
De la generation; De la nature de Ienfant; Des maladies IV; Dufoetus de huit
mois, 165-78. Paris, 1970.
------ , Prognostics = E. Littre, ed. Prognosticon, Oeuvres completes
d Hippocrate, voL 2 ,110 -9 0 . Paris, 1840; repr. Amsterdam, 1978.
Ps.-Iamblichos, Theologoumena Aritbmeticae = V De Falco and V Klein,
eds. [Iamblichi] Theologoumena Aritbmeticae. Bibliothecae scriptorum
Graecorum et RomanorumTeubneriana. Stuttgart, 1975.
John of Damascus, On the Orthodox Faith = P. B. Kotter, ed. D ie Schrifien
desJohannes von Damaskos, vol. 2. Patristische Texte und Studien 12. Ber
lin, 1973.
John Philoponos, Against Proklos, On the Eternity o f the World = H. Rabe,
ed. Ioannes Philoponus. De aetemitate mundi contra Proclum. Leipzig, 1899;
repr. 1963.
Julius Pollux, Onomasticon
zig, 1900.
E. Bethe, ed. Julius Pollux. Onomasticon. Leip
Kosmas o f Jerusalem, Commentary = G. Lozza, ed. Cosma d i Gerusalemme, Commentario aicarm i di Gregorio Nazianzeno. Naples, 2000.
Macrobius, Commentary on the Dream ofScipio = I. Willis, ed. Ambrosii Theodosii Macrobii Commentarii in Somnium Scipionis. Bibliotheca scripto
rum Graecorum et RomanorumTeubneriana. Leipzig, 1963.
Nemesios o f Emesa, On the Nature o f Man = M . Morani, ed. Nemesii
Emeseni, De Natura Hominis. Leipzig, 1987.
Nikephoros o f Constantinople, Testimonia Patrum = J. B. Pitra, ed.
377
BIBLIO G RAPH Y
Nicepbori Antirrhetica II, in Spicilegium Solesmense, vol. i, 336-70. Paris,

1832.
Nikomachos, Introduction to Arithmetic = R. Hoche, ed. Nicomachi Geraseni
Pythagorei Introductions arithmetical libri it. Leipzig, 1866.
Porphyry, ToGaurus, On the Animation o f the Embryo = K. Kalbfleisch, ed.,
Ad Gaurum, quomodo animantur fetus, D ie neuplatonische fdlschlich dem
Galen zugeschriebene Schrift
. Phil, und hist. Abhandlung. der konig. Akadem. der Wiss. zu
Berlin, 1, 1895.
Porphyry, Sentences = E . Lamberz, ed. Porphyriisententiae adintelligibilia ducentes. Leipzig, 1975.
Proklos, Commentary on Platos Alcibiades = L. G. Westerink, ed. Proclus
Diadochus. Commentary on the First Alcibiades o f Plato. Amsterdam, 1954.
------ , Commentary on Platos Cratylus = G. Pasquali, ed. In Platonis Cratylum commentaria. Leipzig, 1908.
------ , Commentary on Platos Parmenides = V. Cousin, ed. Procliphilosophi
Platoniciopera inedita, 617-1244. Paris, 1864; repr. Hildesheim, 1961 and
2002.
------ , Commentary on Platos Timaeus = E. Diehl, ed. Procli Diadocbi In
Platonis Timaeum commentaria. Bibliotheca scriptorum Graecorum
et Romanorum leubneriana. Leipzig, 1903-1906; repr. Amsterdam,
1965.
--- , Elements o f Theology = E. R. Dodds, ed. Proclus. The Elements o fThe
ology. Oxford, 1963.
------ , Platonic Theology = D. Saffrey and L. G. Westerink, eds. Theologie
platonicienne. 5 vols. Paris, 1968-1987.
Proklos o f Constantinople, Homilies = N. Constas, ed. Proclus of Constan
tinople and the Cult o f the Virgin in Late Antiquity. Leiden, 2003.
Psellos, De omnifaria doctrina = L. G. Westerink, ed. MichaelPsellus. De omnifaria doctrina. Nijmegen, 1948.
--- . Opusculum 43 = P. Gautier, ed. Michaelis Pselli theologica, vol. 1:162
6j. Leipzig, 1989.
------ . Philosophica minora = ed. J . Duffy and D. J. OMeara, eds. Phi/osophica minora. Leipzig, 1989.
Suetonius, Concerning Greek Children = J . Taillardat, ed. Suetone.
. . Paris, 1967.
378
BIBLIOGRAPH Y
Theophanes o f Nicaea, On the Light ofThabor = G. Zacharopoulos, ed.

TheophanesofNicaea. Life and Writings, 121-283. Thessaloniki, 2003.
Theophrastos, On the Teachings o f the Physicists = H. Diels, Doxographi
Graeci, 473-95. Berlin, 1879.
Vita = Bronwen Neil and Pauline Allen, eds. The Life o fMaximus the Con
fessor, Recension 3. Strathfield, N.S.W., 2003.
S eco n d a ry
L it e r a t u r e
Balthasar, Hans Urs von, Cosmic Liturgy: The Universe Âccording to Maximos
the Confessor, tram. B. Daley. San Francisco, Calif., 2003.
Barnes, Jonathan. Porphyry, Introduction. Oxford, 2003.
Bathrellos, Demetrios. The Byzantine Christ: Person, Nature and Will in the
Christo/ogy o f St. Maximos the Confessor. Oxford, 2004.
Bradshaw, David. Aristotle East and West. Metaphysics and the Division o f
Christendom. Cambridge, 2004.
Brunschwig, Jacques. Remarks on the Stoic Theory o f the Proper Noun,
in id., Papers in Hellenistic Philosophy, 39-56. Cambridge, 1994.
Constas, Nicholas. St. Maximus the Confessor: The Reception o f His
Thought in East and West. In Knowing the Purpose o f Creation through
the Resurrection. Proceedings o f the Symposium on St. Maximus the
Confessor. Belgrade, October 18-21, 2012, edited by Bishop Maxim
Vasiljevic, 25-53. Alhambra, 2013.
Daley, Brian. Gregory ofNazianzus. London, 2006.
Dillon, John. The M iddle Platonists. Ithaca, N.Y., 1977.
Driscoll, Jeremy. The M inds Long Journey to the Holy Trinity: The Ad
Monachos ofEvagrios. Collegeville, Minn., 1993.
Gersh, Stephen. From Iamblichus to Eriugena. Leiden, 1978.
------ . . A Study o f Spiritual Motion in the Philoso
phy o f Proclus. Leiden, 1973.
Guilland, Rodolphe G. Recherches sur les institutions byzantines, vol. 2. Berlin,
1967.
Janssens, Bart. Does the Combination of Maximus Ambigua a d Thomam
and Ambigua ad Ioharmem Go Back to the Confessor H im self? Sacris
Erudiri 42 (2003): 281-86.
Jeanlin, F. Les prieres du purification du quarantieme jour ap res la nais-
379
BIBLIO GRAPH Y
sance de lenfant. In Liturgie et Anthropo/ogie, edited by A. M . Triacca

and A. Pistoia, 163-75. Rome, 1990.
Lackner, Wolfgang. Studien zur philosopbischen Schultradition und zu den
Nemesioszitaten bei Maximos dem Bekenner (Inauguraldissertation). Graz,
1962.
Lozza, Giuseppe. Cosma d i Gerusalemme, Commentario ai cartni d i Gregorio
Nazianzeno. Naples, 2000.
Nikolaou, Theodore. Zur Identitat der makarios geron in der Mystagogia
von Maximos dem Bekenner. Orientalia Christiana Periodica 49 (1983):
407-18.
Noret, Jean. Gregoire de Nazianze, Pauteur le plus cite, apres la Bible,
dans la litterature ecclesiastique byzantine. In II. Symposium Nazianzenum, Louvain-la-Neuve, 25-28 aout 1981, edited by J. Mossay, 259-66.
Paderborn, 1983.
Norris, Frederick W. Faith Gives Fullness to Reasoning. The Five Theological
Orations o f Gregory Nazianzen. Leiden, 1991.
O Meara, Dominic J . Pythagoras Revived. Mathematics and Philosophy in Late
Antiquity. Oxford, 1989.
Plass, Paul C. Moving Rest in Maximus the Confessor. Classica et Medtaevalia 35 (1984): 177-90.
Rist.John. The Indefinite Dyad and Intelligible Matter in Plotinus. Clas
sical Quarterly 12 (1962): 99-107.
Roueche, Mossman. Byzantine Philosophical Texts of the Seventh Cen
tury, Jahrbuch der Osterreichischen Byzantinistik 23 (1974): 61-76 {= Com
mentary on Porphyrys Isagoge and Aristotles Categories, ascribed to
Maximos],
Sheppard, Anne D. R. Monad and Dyad as Cosmic Principles in Syrianus. In Souland the Structure o fBeing in Late Neoplatonism: Syrianus, Procltis, and Simplicius, edited by H. J. Blumenthal and Antony C. Lloyd,
1-14. Liverpool, 1982.
Sherwood, Polycarp. An Annotated Date-List o f the Works o f Maximus the
Confessor. StudiaAnselmiana30. Rome, 1952.
------ . The Earlier Ambigua o f St. Maximus the Confessor and his Refutation o f
Origenism. StudiaAnselmiana36. Rome, 1955.
Sorabji, Richard, ed. Aristotle Transformed: The Ancient Commentators and
Their Influence. Ithaca, N.Y., 1990.
380
BIBLIOGRAPHY
------ , ed. The Philosophy o f the Commentators 200-600 AD. A Sourcebook. 3

vols. Ithaca, N.Y., 2005.
Stahlin, O. Fragmente ungewisser Herkunft. In id., Clemens Alexandrinus
3, G C S 17,224-30. Leipzig, 1909.
Thunberg, Lars. Microcosm and Mediator: The Theological Anthropology o f
Maximos the Confessor. Acta Seminarii Neotestamentici Upsaliensis, no.
2j. Lund, 1965; 2nd ed. Chicago, 111., 1995.
Vaggione, Richard P. Eunomius: The Extant Works. Oxford, 1987.
Verrycken, Koenraad. The Metaphysics of Ammonius son o f Hernias.
In Aristotle Transformed, edited by Richard Sorabji, 199-231. Ithaca,
N.Y., 1990.
381
Index
Capitalized Roman numerals represent volume numbers. Ambiguum and paragraph numbers followed by n and a number refer to
the notes to the translations (e.g., 10.54 n4 i refers to note 40 o f
Ambiguum 10 in the Notes to the Translation).
Abraham, 1 .10.46,10.50,10.54,
10.54 n4 0 ,10.84-86,10.112,
21.14; .37.6,42.14,42.27,71.6
Achan (son of Carmi), I.10 .18 ,10.18
7.19 n25,7.27 n36,7.35 n43 ,7.40

nn48-49,10.45 3. 10.73 n53 ,
10.88 n6i, 10.91 n66,10.91 n68,
ro.ioi n8o, io .n o n94,15.6 n6,
15.7 n8,16.2 n 4 ,17.3 n8,19.3 ruy3-
ni6
Adam, I.4.6,7.8,7.32,7.321140,
4.19.3 n6,20.2 14,21.13 nn;

II.23.2 n2,25.1 ni, 37.5 nn5-6,
42.3 n2,42.27 n3i, 56.2 n 3,67.3 n3
10.60; II.31.3,42.3-4,42-3 3.
42.10-11,42.32,45.1,45-3
Alexander of Aphrodisias, 1 .10.45
Athanasios o f Alexandria, I.9.1,
n 36 ,16.2114
Ammonios, I.prol. John 7 n2, 7.40
10 .1,10.93 n7> H1 , 12.1-2

Augustine, 1.19.3 n3
048
Amorite, II.42.6,45.2
Anatolios, II.37.5 n6
Anna (mother o f Samuel), I.10.25
Babylon, II.37.4
Basil o f Caesarea, I.7.18,7.181123,
Apollinarians, 1 .2.5
Apollinarios, I.5.4
n3 , 701 70-2
Bezalel, II.61.1-2
Archytas, II.37.3 n2
Arian(s), I.2.4-5,10.93 n7 > T3-5 n4 ;
II.24 .2 ,24.3 n3,25.1 ni, 25.2,25.4,
Choreb, I.10.2223
27.4 n4
Aristode, I.5.22 n2i, 7.709,7.12 ni5,
10.53 n39> I91
.24.2 n2,40.2
Christ, I.prol. Thom . 5,5.20,5.20

n i9 ,5.24, prol. Joh n 6,7.8,7.11,
7.36-38,10.19,10.45,10.53,2I-4>
383
INDEX
Christ (continued)
21.16; II.27.1 m, 27.2-5,31.1,31.3,
047,10.73-74 M 53-54 ,10.77 ni6 ,

10.99, H-4.1 712 23,20.6, 20.7
m o, 21.7 nny-8; II.23.3,23.4 ,
31.4 n 4 ,31.5 n6,32.5 n8,32.6,35.2,
35.2 n 3,40.2 n2,41.2 n6,41.5 mo,
31.4 3,31.6,31.9-10,32.4-5,38.1
ni, 38.2-4,38.2 12,41.7,42.1,
42.17,42.19,42.241129,44.1,44.1
m, 47 -2 - 3 . 53 -2 . 33 -6 ,54.2,54.4,
56.3,57.2,58.1,63.1, 67.10
Chrysippos, II.46.2 n2
Chrysostom, I.20.2 n3; II.32.4 ,
4 1.11, 46.4 n5,47.2112,56.2 n2,

60.2 2, 67.9 4,71.2 n2,71.6,
41.2 n 4 ,42.6 n6
Clement o f Alexandria, I.7.24,14.3
n3,17.3 n8; II.41.2 04
Egypt, I.10 .16 ,10.53; II.38.1-2 n m 2.38.3.38.4
Cyril o f Alexandria, II.42.6 n6,

42.10 m2
Daniel, 1 .19.4
David (king o f Israel), I.6.3,7.8,
10.20-21,10.55,21.2; 37-4,
37.10,40.2,62.1-2,71.2-3,71.10
David (philosopher), I.5.22 n2i,
10.9 n 8 ,15.5 n5
Devil, I.4 .6 ,10.19, 10.51, 10.53;
11.38.4.54.2
Dexippos, 1 .20.2 n3
Didymos o f Alexandria, II.66.3 n7
Diogenes o f Babylon, II.46.2 n2
Dionysios the Areopagite, I.prol.
Thom. 3, 5.1-2,5.5, 5.5 14,5.6-8
nn6-8, 5.9,5.10-11 n n io -11,5.12,
5.15-16,5.18,5.20,5.20 ni7,6.4 n5,
7.6 n6,7.7 n8,7.7 m o, 7.9 nn, 7.11
n i4 ,7.16,7.16 n2i, 7.20 nn26-28,
7.24,7.24 n32,9.2 n 2 ,10.9 n6,
71.7,71.11
Egyptian(s), I.10.33,10.51; II.38.4,

50.4
Eli, II.37.3
Elias (philosopher), I.5.22 n2i, 7.35
43,7.40 1148,14.4 n5,20.2 n3
Elijah, I.10.22-24,10.26,10.28,
10.64-72,10.701149,10.74-75,
10.81-82,21.14; II.42.27,66.1,
66.1 m
Elisha, I.10.24
Enoch, II.42.27
Eriugena, I.io 1148,22.2 n2; II.28.1
m , 30.2 n3
Esau, II.45.2
Eunomians, I.13.1,14.1,17.2 n 2 ,18.3;
11.25.4
Eunomios, I.16.2 n2,17.2 n2,18.2
Evagrios, I.7.2 n2,10.31 n22,10.37
3, 10.113 n97; II.31.4 n3,32.4
n7,51.2 n3
Ezekiel, II.42.6
10.10 n 9 ,10.23 nl8 ,10.29 2,

10.31 n25,10.41 M132-33,10.64
Father (God), I.4.9,5.23,5.27,7.11,

7.36-37,10.46,16.2; II.23.4,24 -3 ~
384
INDEX
4,25.1-4,25.1 , 26.2-3, 271 ni,

27.2- 3,27.5,29.1 m, 31.4,41.9,
41.I I , 42.19,42.32,46.4, 60.4,
61.2- 3
Gaius, I.5.1-2
Galen, II.43.2114
Greek(s), I.7.2,7.2 n2,10.32,15.10,
16.2; II.39.2,71.7 n;
Gregory of Nyssa, I.10.52 038,
10.54 4, 10.89 1164, io-9i n66,
10.113 n97,14.3 n3,20.2 n3; II.31.4
n3,32.2 3,32.4 n7,40.2 nn3~4,
41.2 n3,41.3-5 nn7-9,41.7 m2,
41.10 m3,42.8 n7,42.13 ni7,42.22
1128,42.31 n32,61.2112,67.14 mo,
71.5 n3
Gregory Palamas, I.10.29 ni9,
10.48 n37
Gregory the Theologian (of Nazianzos), I.prol.Thom. 3, prol.
Thom. 5,1.1,1.1-2 nn2-4,2.1,
2-3_ 5>3-i. 32 2^ , 3.4,3.5 n4,
4 -1- 2, 4-4 , 4_4 n3, 4.6,5.4 3, 5.6
nn5-6,5.221121,5.271124, prol.
John 5, prol. John 6 m, prol. John
7, prol. John 8,6.1-2,6.2 n2,7.1-2,
7.7 n9,7.12-13,7.12111116-17,7.1314 imi9-20,7.25,7.261U134-35,
7-29 - 3i, 7.30 37, 7.31 n39, 7.33,
7.34-35111142-43,7.35-36,7.35
45,7.39,8.1-2,8.4,9.1-2,10.1-2,
10.4-7,10.15 nl3>10.29 M 9.10.32
1126,10.73 n52>93 7, 10.105
107,10.106 9, n.1-2,12.1-2,
385
13.1.13.2 n2,13.4-5, J3-5 n4> I4-I4,14.2-3 nn2-3,14.4 7,15.1,15.3

n3,15.4-5,16.1-2,16.2 n4,17.1-2,
17.6,17.10,17.10-11 nni9-2i, 18.1
3 ,19.1-2,19.3 n2,19.5 n7,20.1,
20.2113.20.3.21.1- 3,21.3 n4,21.5,
21.11,21.13,2I-I5 nni3-i4,21.16,
22.1,22.3; II.23.1,23.3-4,23-3 "6.
23.4 n8,24.1-2,24.3 n3, 24.4 n5,
25.13,25.2112,25.4,26.1-3,27-1.
27.4.27.4 n3,28.1-2,29.1,30.1,
31.3- 4,31.5 nn6-7,31.9-10,31.9
n9,32.1-3,32.5,32.7,33.1-2,34.1,
35.1- 2,36.1,37.1,37.3-4.37-4 " 4 .

37.10.38.1.39.1- 2,40.1,40.3,40.3
nn5-6,41.1,41.2114,41.3 n7,41.6
nn, 42.1-5,42.8,42.10-12,42.10
nmo-ii, 42.111114,42.20,42.31
32,43.1-2,43.2 n3,44.1,45.1,
45-3-5.45-3 n6, 461-2, 46.4,46.4

5,47.1,48.1,48.2 2,48.4,48.7,
49.1.50.1.50.3- 4,51.1,52.1,53.1,
54.1,55.1,56.1,56.3 n6, 57.1,58.1,
58.2
n2,59.1 m, 60.1 ni, 61.1,
62.12,62.2112,63.1-2,63.1-2
nm-2,63.4,64.1 m, 64.2,65.1,
66.1,66.1 ni, 66.2 n6,67.1 m,
67.15.68.1- 2,69.1,70.1-2,70.2 03,
71.1-
3,71.5-7,7-9 - , 7 i10 n8
Hades, I.20.2; II.38.4,59.1-3

Hagar, I.10.112
Hermon, II.71.2
Herod, II.38.2
Hezekiah, 1.10.55
INDEX
Hippocrates, II.42.241130,43.2114
Hippolytos, II.67.14 mo
Hittite, II.42.6
John o f Damascus, 1 .4.4 n2,5.15 ni4

John o f Kyzikos, I.prol. John 1;
(Holy) Spirit, I.prol. Thom. 4,5.23,

5.27,7.12,10.9,10.24,10.32,10.44,
19.2,2 1.11,21.16; II.23.4,31.3,32.4
John o f Skythopolis, 1.5.15 ni5,7.4

114, 7.11 n i4 ,7.24 n 30 ,10.6 4,
II.28.1 ni, 69.2 n2
-9 n7; II.46.4 ny, 71.2 n2

John Philoponos, I.10.93 nyo, 15.5
n3,37.4,42.10,42-31-32,47 -3 48.4, 61.2-3, 68.2 2
n5; I I .24.2112
John the Baptist, I.6 .3,21.2 n3, 21.3,
21.6, 21.14-15; II.37.1-4 ,37.10,
49.1-2,50.3
Irenaeos, I.21.5 05
Isaac, I.10.112; II.37.6
Isaiah, 1.7.18; II.32.2
Ishmael, I.10.112
Israel, I.6 .3,10.17,10.67-68;
11.37.10 .45.2.62.2
Israelite, I.10.116; II.38.4,42.29,
51.1-2
John the Theologian, I.2 1.1-3,21.2

n3,21.6,21.13,21.13 nII>21.15-16,
21.15 m3; II.48.5, 57 -1-3
Jordan (land), II.71.2
Jordan River, I.10.17
Joseph (OT), I.10.33, ! 9-4
Joseph o f Arimathea, II.54.1-3
Joshua, I.10 .17-19,10.17 n i4 ,10.18
Jacob (OT), II.37.6, 51.2

Jericho, I.10 .18 ,10.18 m6
Jerusalem, I.10.82; II.37.4,42.6
Jesus, I.prol. Thom. 4,5.1,5.3,5.5,
5-5 n4, S , 5-15,7-8,7-2i, 7-36-37,

9.2112,10.17 ni4 10.19,10.34,
10.46,10.49-50,10.56,10.73,
14.4,21.13; n.31.4,32.4,41-7.
4 1.11,42., 47.2-3,48.2-3,56.1,
6 0 .2
ni6
Judah, II.37.2
Judea, 11.37.10,71.3
Judean, II.38.2-3
Julius Pollux, II.71.7 n7
Justinian (Emperor), I.7.2 n2;
II.32.4 n6,42.10 m o, 42.10-11
nni3-i4,42.12 n i6 ,42.16 n22
2, 6 2 .2 , 6 7 .I, 6 7 .9 -
Kaisarios (brother o f Gregory the

Theologian), I.21.11; II.71.ro
Kledonios, II.42.20
Jesus, son o f Sirach, I.14.4

Jew(s), I.10.32; II.55.2
Jewish, 1 .10.32,10.49; II.42.241129
Joanna, II.56.1-2
Job, I.ir.1-2
John V I Kantakouzenos, I.10.29
ni9
Laban, II.51.2
Lazarus, I.10.84,10.86; II.71.6
Leah, II.51.1-2,51.2 n3
386
INDEX
Levi, II.42.14
Levite, II.37.2, 37.10
Logos, 1.7.17,7.20-22,7.241130,7.25,
7.35,10.66; H.31.3,33.1-2,54.2,
60.4. See also Word
Luke (evangelist), I.21.6
Macrobius, II.67.10 n6
Mani, II.42.16 n22, 42.24
Manichaeans, I.5.4; II.42.16,42.16
22
Mark (evangelist), I.21.6
Mart (of Mt 27:61,28:1), II.56.1,
56.2
Mart'Magdalene, I.10.34; II.27.1
ni, 56.1-2
Matthew (evangelist), I.21.6
Melchizedek, 1.10.42-49
Midianite, I.10.116
Monophysites, I.j.18 6; II.27.4
114,42.8 7
Montanos, I I .68.2,68.2 n2
Moses, I.7.8,7.24,10.14-17,10.28,
10.46,10.51-53,10.64-73,10.70
149,10.73 r52>75 10.80-82,
IO.I13-II4, 21.14; II.38.4,42.24,
6i .i-2, 67.ro
Nikoderaos, II.55.1-2
Nikomachos of Gerasa, 11.37.5 n6,
66.2 n3
Noah, II.42.27
Origen, I.7.2 n2,7.4 n4, n9, 21.5
5; .42.4 n>, 426 6, 42.16-17
22-23,46.2 2,56.2 3
Origenist(s), 1.10.73052,10.88 6;
II.42.12 6 ,65.1
Pantainos (ofAlexandria), .7.24,
7.24 3
Paradise, II.41.2,41.4,41.8,41.9,
S32- 53-7
Paul (Apostle), I.7.8,7.11,7.13,7.36,
7.38,10.32,10.47, IO-54> 20.1,
20.3-6,21.15,21.15 m3; II.41.7,
41.11,42.14,42.19,47.2-3, 48.3,
68.2,71.2,71.3
Peter (Apostle), II.47.3,57.1-3
Peter of Alexandria, II.38.1 nr
Pharaoh, 1.10,51,10.53; IL38.4
Pharisees, I.10.117
Philippians, 1.7.8
Philo, I.10.31 n22,10.54 04-10.116
n98,14.4 5,17.9 6; II.38.4 n3,
41.2 n4,41.3 n7,45.2 n3, 66.2
nn4-5,67.10 n6,71.7 n7
Phinehas, I.10.116
Plato, I.7.20 1127,7.35 n43,10.73 nS317.8 ni4; II.23.4 ?, 46.3-4 nn4-5,
67.10 n6
Plotinos, 1.10.73 n53>10.91 n68,15.6
n6; II.26.2 n3
Nemesios o f Emesa, I.7.7 n8,10.3

n2,10.86 nn59-6o, 10.91 n68,
10.99-103 77-88,10.104 9,
10.108-111 nn92-95,19.3 n3;
II.37.6 n7,41.3 n7,45.3 n7
Nikephoros o f Constantinople,
II.46.4 ny
387
INDEX
Porphyry,I.5.22n2i,prol.John7 Themistios,II.42.3n2
n2,10.11mo, 10.891*62,17.4n9, TheophanesofNicaea, 1.10.299
17.5-6nnii-12,20.2114;II.42.20 Theophrastos, 1.10.83nJ7
Theotokos,1.5.13
nzj
Proklos(patriarchofConstanti Thief(onthecross),II.41.8,531-2,
nople),II.41.2n4
53.4- 6
Proklos(philosopher),I.1.3ny,10.6 Thomas(Apostle), II.y8.1-3
4,10.91n65,14.3n3,15.5nj,16.2 ThomastheSanctified, I.prol.
n3,17.3ny,20.213;II.24.31>4
Thom.1,1.2n3
PromisedLand, I.10.73n52;
Trinity,I.1.1-3,5.23,7.26,10.1,10.78,
II.50.3-4,Ji.i
10.99,10.106,10.107; II.23.1,
Ps.-CyrilofAlexandria, II.24.2n2
23.4.27.2.35.1ni,66.2-3,67.10
Ps.-IambUchos,II.66.2ny,67.10n6 Tyre,I.10.19
Pyrrhos,1.5.20117-18
Virgin(Mary), I.y.6,5.13,10.52;
Rachel,II.51.1-2,51.2n3
II.31.2,41.12,42.11-12
Salome, II.y6.1-2
Word(ofGod), I.prol.Thom.4,
Sarah,1.10.54; II.42.27
2.2.2.4- 5,3-2-3,41-2,4.5,5.6,
Severos,I.y.22mo
5.8,5.11, y.13-15,5.15nm4-iy,5.21,
Shiloh, II.37.3
5.24-26,prol.John6,6.3,7.33,
SimonofCyrene, II.y2.1-2
10.17-18,10.29-34,10.311124,
Simplikios,1.10.83n57,15.611114-6,
10.41,10.43,10.44,10.48,10.49,
17.3 n6,17.3n8,19.3nny-6, 20.2 10.52,10.59-60,10.65-66,
n3;II.37.32,37.5ny,42.3m
10.69-71,10.75, IO-77n35>IO-^4
Son(God),I.1.1-2,2.1-2,3.1,4.1,
n58,10.85,10.117-119,21.1,21.3,
5.23,7.11,73A-37,10.19,10.29,
21.4,21.7,21.13,2115,21.15m3;
10.42,10.45, to-93n7o,16.2;
II.23.4,26.3,27.1-5,30.2,30.2113,
II.23.1,23.424.1-4,25.1-2,25.1
31.33I-S>31-9,32.2,36.2,60.2112,
67.12.Seealso Logos
ni,25.4, 26.1-3,27.1-2,28.1,29.1,
29.1 m,30.1,30.2,38.3,40.3,
42.19,42.31-32,61.2-3
Zarephath,widowfrom,I.10.27;
Suetonius, 11.71.7ny
11.66.1
Symmachos, II.42.6,42.6n6
388

(Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library) Maximus The Confessor, Nicholas Constas (Ed.) - On The Difficulties in The Church Fathers - The Ambigua. II-Harvard Univer PDF

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

(Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library) Maximus The Confessor, Nicholas Constas (Ed.) - On The Difficulties in The Church Fathers - The Ambigua. II-Harvard Univer PDF

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

T he A m b i g u a

Maximos the Confessor

Jan M. Ziolkowski, General Editor

Edited and Translated by

Copyright 2014 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College

Printed in the United States o f America

Library o f Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

rom Saint Gregorys First Oration On the Son:

Everything which is moved according to nature is nec- 2

one is naturally moved); and as the cause o f beings, it may

exist hypostatically, lest the Divine be thought to be com

is heard to an act of speech. They belong instead to

of the other things he mentioned follow the others, without

tween the Father and the Son there is no mediation o f will,

they had so illogically concluded, saying, I do not know

The premise o f the Arians, that is, the Eunomians:

pertaining to both, that is, God and the Father, since,

To make this clearer, when Christ is contemplated as a.

teacher adds) And these things belong to His human

beyond matter (as far as flesh was concerned) through as

:om Saint Gregorys oration On the Nativity:

If in truth the abolition o f the laws of nature caused the

remained deficient and unfilled. And what are these laws of

Another interpretation2 of Saint Gregorys words

spiritual unity of the divine fraternal dyad.3 I believe that

its strange sacrifice might signifythough I understand it

Another contemplation o f the same

nature o f beings say that one of natures laws is the unwaver

bearing witness within His own selfby the perfection of

Being wholly inspired by the Word, the great teacher 2

virtue of His unshakeable and immovable abiding. The hori

{1284C} o f our Lord Jesus Christ is the cross, which He car

It seems to me that this is exactly what the great Saint 6

are compounded; without origin in things that have a be

all creation, whether risible or invisible. Moreover, from

created things in a manner proportionate to each, without

beyond mixture with Him. In the first instance, nature did

John in the womb, then at least like David at the repose

tance restored to the soul the gladness of divine joy that is

residing in the heavens), or when it gives the name o f Abra

will attain to practical, natural, and theological philosophy,

diligently pursued their course to Him, and it was for Him

occupation, that is, his rank, is that of shepherd and king.

this last sense that we should understand the Lords flight to

philosophy that require affliction for the acquisition o f the

which lies hidden, or rather over which rules, the dragon

hands, men o f sense could not imprecate anything

rom Saint Gregorys same oration On the Theophany:

Those who comprehend divine mysteries say that where 2

infinite, and transcends absolutely all the concepts of time

rom Saint Gregorys same oration On the Theophany:

Having received the greater part of the divine mysteries

according to which man, who is above alllike a most capa

divine plan, not divided by the designation of male and fe

understanding or explanation. And finally, in addition to all

union of what is divided naturally comes about)to fulfill

the dead, demonstrating that the earth is one and not di

pose. Thus He united, first o f all, ourselves in Himself

general relation to what is Itself totally unconditioned, nor

his treatise On the Divine Names, says the following: For

41a. Another contemplation of this same difficulty

rom Saint Gregorys oration On Baptism:

A fter having added a few more remarks to these, {1316B}